Last Week Strong for Holiday Ecommerce
The final week of pre-Christmas online holiday shopping started strong. According to comScore, Monday the 17th saw a 33% increase and Tuesday the 18th saw a 25% increase over last year. This means that even though growth for the entire online holiday shopping season has been lower than forecast to this point, this week’s strong performance could still nudge the numbers up.
comScore points out that its chairman, Gian Fulgoni, believes that shoppers are more willing to wait until later in the holiday season to do their shopping:
“While it is now safe to say that the heaviest online spending days of the season are behind us, we believe we may continue to see strong growth rates during the remainder of the season due to the late-season shipping deals being offered by some retailers, and consumers’ ability to buy online and pick-up their purchase the same day at the retail store.
Customers are demanding more from ecommerce this season, and waiting for online businesses to offer the same sorts of incentives seen at brick-and-mortar stores by the end of the season. Indeed, this holiday shopping season may show the importance of free shipping, and discounted shipping for fast delivery.
While final numbers for online holiday shopping this season aren’t out yet, we will be watching to see if the 20% growth number is met this year.
Tags: ecommerce revenue, ecommerce growth, holiday ecommerce, online holiday shopping,
online shopping, ecommerce businesses, online spending
Posted by Miranda | December 22, 2007
Merry Christmas from Banks.com Mortgage Blog! - Mortgage Rate News - Banks.com December 24th, 2007
[…] However, this year the story has been a little different. Many consumers report that they plan to spend less this year, and many have waited until the last minute to buy gifts. In large part, this is due to the economy. Economic uncertainty and worries over a possible recession are causing many to wait for deeper discounts and bargain prices on many of the items they purchased this holiday season. […]
Online Holiday Shopping Numbers :: Varien :: Open Source eCommerce Development and Consulting Firm December 31st, 2007
[…] Predictions by ComScore had been that through the last week before Christmas, online holiday shopping would grow by at least 20%. However, despite the solid start for online shopping the last week before Christmas, ecommerce spending ended up at 19% growth over last year. MarketWatch reports that warm November weather was partly to blame for the slowing growth of online holiday shopping: The Reston, Va., provider of survey and research services in the digital world reported that for the first 57 days of the holiday season - Nov. 1 through Dec. 27 — sales tallied $27.96 billion, up from $23.56 billion in the year-earlier period. Online sales in the 2006 period had grown 26%, the firm reported. […]