Online Holiday Sales Dip

Spending for 2008 drops three percent from 2007

January 2, 2009

• Wal-Mart Fined $7,000 for "Black Friday" Employee Death • Online Holiday Sales Dip • Christmas Sales Forecast Gets More Grim • Black Friday Victim's Family Sues Wal-Mart • Giving Without Shopping: Make It a Priceless Holiday • Cyber Monday Spending Jumps 15 Percent • More Evidence Consumers Plan to Reduce Holiday Spending • Retailers' "Desperation" to Mark Black Friday • 'Tis The Season For Stress & Depression • CPSC Offers Toy Safety Tips for Holiday Shopping • Consumers Playing Rebate Roulette This Holiday Season • Beware of Zero Percent Financing • Survey Finds Consumers Wary about Holiday Returns • NYC Fines Retailers for Return & Restocking Fee Violations • Retailers Urged to Curb Violent Video Games • Smart, Careful Shopping Will Help Keep the Season Bright • Video Game Industry Gets a D+ • Negative Option Scams May Snag Online Holiday Shoppers • Retailers' Return Policies Getting Tougher • Safety, Shopping, Charitable Giving Tips • Consumer Reports Holiday Guide • The Gift That Keeps On Taking • Best of All: Giving Without Shopping

Consumers shopping online apparently spent more than those shopping in stores, but not enough to increase this year's holiday sales over last year's. comScore, an online sales analyst, reports online holiday spending, from November 1 through Christmas Eve, totaled $25.5 billion, down three percent from 2007.

"The 2008 online holiday shopping season has declined three percent versus year ago, falling behind our expectation of flat sales this year," said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. "This marks the first time we've seen negative growth rates for the holiday season since we began tracking e-commerce in 2001. The combination of having five fewer shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas and the severe economic headwinds faced by consumers has made this a really tough season for retailers, both offline and online."

The growth rate for Q4 2008 to date compared to the same period a year ago will end up looking marginally worse than the holiday season results, the company predicted. For the period of October 1 — December 28, compared to the same calendar days in 2008, e-commerce spending is down four percent to 36.8 billion.

The fourth quarter of 2008 will also mark the first full quarter to record a negative growth rate since comScore began tracking e-commerce.

Despite soft online sales this holiday season, consumers continued to shop online for the best deals. In the period of December 1-24 vs. the corresponding shopping days last year, several top retailers achieved growth in visitation to their sites.

eBay remained the most visited retail site with 85.4 million visitors but saw a slight decline of 4 percent in visitors, while three of the top five most visited sites recorded gains. Amazon sites grew seven percent to 76.2 million visitors, followed by Wal-Mart, Target and Apple Inc.

Report Your Experience
If you've had a bad experience -- or a good one -- with a consumer product or service, we'd like to hear about it. All complaints are reviewed by class action attorneys and are considered for publication on our site. Knowledge is power! Help spread the word. File your consumer report now.

Share		Follow us on Twitter.

Back to the top |