Online Shopping Increases, Malls And Stores Report OK Sales
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Minneapolis (WCCO) Were you part of the shopping opener this weekend? Malls and department stores report sales were not spectacular.
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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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By JANE KWIATKOWSKI  Tired of cranky cashiers? Sick of ATM lines? Want to know where there are no lines?  Online -- at the Internet Mall, where you can join 115 million other shoppers this holiday season.  Shoppers use the Internet for much more than making purchases.
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U.S. chain store retail sales rose in the latest week after sizable back-to-back declines, as consumers took to the stores for holiday shopping, a retail report said on Tuesday.
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Chain store sales rose last week  boosted by sales of fall apparel and back-to-school items, a  report showed on Tuesday.
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Although some major retailers saw Web site slowdowns on the day after Thanksgiving, Cyber Monday shoppers apparently had few problems buying online yesterday.
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U.S. retail sales jumped a more-than-expected 1.2 percent in December, the government said on Thursday, as car dealers, furniture stores and on-line retailers reported strong sales.
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(InfoWorld) - The 2006 holiday shopping period got off to a strong start over the weekend, according to several e-commerce operators. The Friday after the Thanksgiving holiday is typically seen as the start of the holiday sales season in the U.S. and retail outlets across the nation see some of the largest crowds of the year on that day. In recent years, online retailers also report strong traffic on the day. While consumers may be opening their wallets to online retailers like never before, there's also evidence they are after bargains like never before. Two online price comparison sites, which point consumers to the lowest prices for various items, reported surging traffic. Pricegrabber.com said it's seen a 45 percent increase year-over-year in referrals to merchants for November to date. In some categories, including toys, sporting goods and apparel, the amount of traffic sent to retailers by Pricegrabber has more than doubled, it said. Rival site Shopping.com reported a 40 percent jump in November-to-date referrals to online retailers and said hot categories include kids and family, home and garden, and clothing and accessories. Despite the strong traffic, Monday is likely to be busier, said Shopping.com. Last year visitors to the site peaked between noon and 2 p.m. on Monday. Two of the season's hottest holiday gift items, the recently-launched PlayStation 3 and Wii games consoles, have been selling fast on Ebay. In the week to Nov. 24, 14,675 PlayStation 3 and 26,708 Wii consoles were sold through the site. The average price of the PS3 was US$1,186.39 while the Wii fetched an average $412.53, according to eBay Marketplace Research. Both prices are well above their suggested retail prices. Other hot electronics items include the Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. BDP-1000 Blu-ray Disc player and Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod nano and iPod Shuffle, the company said.
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U.S. chain store retail sales rose in the latest week, a report said on Tuesday.
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InfoWorld - E-tailers have laggards and penny-pinchers to thank for last week's brisk sales, which grew 25 percent over the comparable period last year, according to comScore.
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U.S. chain store retail sales rose in the latest week, as increased customer traffic at discount and department stores continues to drive sales, a retail report said on Tuesday.
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Spending by Americans shopping  online during this year's holiday season rose 24 percent from a  year earlier 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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WASHINGTON - US retail sales over the Internet rose 0.9 percent in the second quarter of 2004 and gained 23.1 percent compared with the same period last year as consumers continued to turn to e-commerce to make purchases, a government report showed on
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Chain store sales rose more than expected last week mainly due to back-to-school shopping, in a sign that consumers continue to spend despite a weaker economy, two reports showed on Tuesday.
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U.S. chain store retail sales rose in  the latest week, a report said on Tuesday.
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Online sales of holiday stalwarts like jewelry, watches and flowers have dropped from last yearâs levels, while sales of more practical items like furniture and appliances have climbed.
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Shopping around shopping guides shows a new level of sophistication to buying online, a report suggests.