Consumers Keep Spending, Latest Data Show
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U.S. consumers shrugged off record  oil prices to lift spending at the start of the fourth quarter,  data on Friday showed, in an upbeat sign for growth that may  signal another Federal Reserve rate hike in December.
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U.S. buyers shopped aggressively online on Monday and Tuesday of this week, spending significantly more than they did on the comparable days last year, according to comScore.Online retail spending hit $700 million on Monday, up 33 percent from last year, and $670 million on Tuesday, up 25 percent, the Web-monitoring company said Thursday.During the first 48 days of the holiday shopping season -- Nov. 1 to Dec. 18 -- U.S. shoppers have spent almost $25 billion in online retail purchases, up 19 percent from the same period last year, according to comScore.As Christmas day approaches, the intensity of online shopping will ease up, although late-shipping deals, in-store pickup options and price reductions should keep growth rates strong in the remainder of the holiday season, comScore said.The company expects online spending during the holidays to reach $29.5 billion, which would represent a 20 percent increase over the 2006 season.Meanwhile, Nielsen Online said Wednesday that a majority of online shoppers it surveyed reported being either &quot;very satisfied&quot; or &quot;somewhat satisfied&quot; with the customer support they received from online shopping Web sites.Nielsen Online&#39;s survey found that of the 46 percent of respondents who had posted or planned to post reviews about their online shopping experience, 88 percent said those reviews were, or would be, positive.Netflix topped the survey&#39;s customer satisfaction list, having been rated &quot;very satisfied&quot; by 90.3 percent of respondents, and was followed by comparison-shopping site NexTag.com (87 percent), giant e-tailer Amazon.com (86.6 percent), Yahoo Shopping (84.3 percent) and Kohls.com (84.1 percent). Rounding out the top 10 were Barnesandnoble.com, HomeDepot.com, Circuitcity.com, eBay.com, and JCPenney.com.On the other end of the spectrum, sites that in recent days have been flagged for buckling under the strong holiday-season traffic include Mastercard.com and Macys.com.Macys.com&#39;s home page faced slowdowns throughout Tuesday, taking, at its worst, about 38 seconds to load, compared with the usual 2 seconds, according to Web site uptime and availability tracker Gomez.Apparently, while experiencing availability problems, Macys.com has been serving up a page telling shoppers that the site is crowded and that they have to wait until traffic decreases in order to be let in. An apparent screenshot of this page was posted by The Consumerist blog on Tuesday.Meanwhile, Mastercard.com has racked up downtime of almost five hours between Nov. 9 and Dec. 20, equivalent to uptime of 99.5 percent for that period, according to Pingdom, which also tracks Web site performance. As such, Mastercard.com has performed significantly worse than sites from competing credit-card companies like Discover, Visa, Diners Club, and American Express, all of which have had uptime above 99.9 percent during this period, Pingdom said Thursday.Neither Macy&#39;s nor MasterCard immediately responded to requests for comment.
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Consumers boosted their spending at  the strongest rate in four months during August and core  consumer prices posted their smallest year-on-year rise in  3-1/2 years, the Commerce Department reported on Friday.
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Consumers shrugged off rising energy costs and kept spending in October, boosting retail sales and supporting forecasts of a solid holiday season ahead for retailers.
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Spending by Americans shopping online  during this year's holiday season rose 24 percent to $8.8  billion, with sharp gains in purchases of clothing and  entertainment, Web company VeriSign Inc. said on Thursday.
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U.S. incomes and spending rose in October, providing the means for consumers to keep spending as the holiday shopping season approached, while core consumer prices rose modestly, the government reported on Thursday.
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The outlook for the US economy in 2007 has picked up, a survey indicates, thanks to robust consumer spending.
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WASHINGTON -- Battered consumers, faced with weak income growth and rising inflation, trimmed their spending in August by the largest amount in nearly a year. The Commerce Department reported Friday that consumer spending, after adjusting for inflation, dropped by 0.1 percent last month, the first...
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Online consumers in the United States spent $8.8 billion, excluding travel purchases, in November, a 19 percent jump over the $7.4 billion spent online a year earlier, a report released Monday said.
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U.S. online consumer spending from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31 was up 19% from the same time last year, according to comScore.
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Facts and figures on spending in the presidential race:
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Where the shoppers are and what they're finding.
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Consumers&#39; assessment of the economy held largely steady this month, according to a university research report released Friday.
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UK consumers are still borrowing more money than citizens of any other European country, a report says.
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NEW YORK - Consumers&#39; assessment of the economy held largely steady this month, according to a university research report released Friday.
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Consumer spending in the US rises by its largest amount in three-and-a-half years in November, figures show.
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Consumers are escalating their purchases on the Internet, but concerns  still remain regarding the safety of online purchases.