US festive online spending up 19%
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Sales in the US by online retailers rise 19% between 1 November and 27 December, comScore says.
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hoAs the holiday season wound down, U.S. residents kept on shopping significantly more than they did in 2006, particularly on the day after Christmas, but they also reported being less satisfied with e-tailers, according to a pair of studies.Between Nov. 1 and Dec. 27 -- the first 57 days of the holiday season -- U.S. shoppers spent almost $28 billion in online retail purchases, up 19 percent compared with the same period in 2006, according to comScore.Shoppers spent $545 million on Dec. 26, more than doubling the spending on that day in 2006, as they took advantage of late-season offers and discounts, according to comScore.Still, it looks like online spending growth for the 2007 holiday season will fail to meet comScore&#39;s 20 percent forecast, and fall way below the 26 percent growth registered during this period in 2006.comScore chalks up the smaller-than-expected growth to several factors, including warm weather in early November and various economic challenges this year, including higher gas prices, the real estate crunch, and a &quot;jittery&quot; stock market, the company said Sunday.Another important metric that dropped this holiday season compared with 2006&#39;s was customer satisfaction, according to ForeSee Results, a provider of online customer-satisfaction measurement services.A survey of more than 11,000 shoppers revealed that, on a 100-point scale, customer satisfaction with the largest 40 e-tailers dropped, in aggregate, to 74 points, down 1.3 points from the 2006 holiday season, according to ForeSee. It conducted the survey in conjunction with FGI Research using the methodology of the University of Michigan&#8217;s American Customer Satisfaction Index.Still, the spending growth in online shopping this holiday season, even at 19 percent, would greatly outpace the growth of overall U.S. retail holiday spending, forecast at 4 percent by the National Retail Federation.That 4 percent growth rate -- which would put 2007 holiday season retail spending in the United States at almost $475 billion -- would fall below the 10-year average of 4.8 percent and be the slowest since 2002, according to the National Retail Federation.
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It's shaping up to be a very  merry holiday season for online retailers.
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Holiday Web sales are running ahead of forecast as online gift certificates helped give Internet retailers a chance to participate in U.S. consumers' last-minute shopping spree, Internet research firm comScore Networks said on Wednesday.
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U.S. personal spending jumped a much bigger-than-expected 1.1 percent in November, the sharpest rise in more than two years, while prices rose, a Commerce Department report showed on Friday.
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Researcher says U.S. shoppers will fork out $13.2 billion online this season, but year-over-year increases are slipping.
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Fueled by Web searches for iPods, Elmos, gift cards and video game consoles, online retailers are expecting sales to increase by about 20 percent this year.
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Online holiday spending for the first two days of this week increased 29% over the same two last year, according to comScore Inc.
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A report from market research firm comScore pegs the amount of&#160;online spending this holiday season&#160;at nearly $28 billion, a 19 percent gain over the same period last year.
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Online holiday spending, excluding travel and auctions, was &#36;8.41 billion between Nov. 1 through Dec. 5, up 23 percent from the year-ago period and on track to meet estimates, comScore Networks said Friday.
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Don&#39;t expect higher gas prices to dull gift-giving this year: Consumers plan to spend a bit more on holiday gifts and merchandise, according to a survey released Wednesday.
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Online buying continues to snowball, according to the results of a recent America Online survey. This year, for the first time, Americans who regularly use the Internet for shopping -- researching
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US retailers holiday gift-card sales may have risen to more than $20 billion, topping forecasts and boosting after-Christmas shopping at stores after a lackluster holiday season.
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Online shops look set to have a good Christmas as UK web-users get the online buying habit.
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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. VRSN.O said on  Thursday.
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Online retailers sold $14.8 billion worth of goods and services between Nov. 1 and Dec. 26, a 29 percent increase over the comparable period in 2003, according to statistics released this week by ComScore Networks. The increase was particularly pronounced in the week before Christmas. -The Washington Post
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Spending during the Christmas season rose just 3.6 percent over last year, the weakest rate in at least four years, a report by a credit card company said.