Web research firm comScore Inc. (SCOR) late Sunday announced that retail e-commerce spending for the holiday season in first 35 days of the November to December 2008 holiday season remained flat with the year-ago period. However, spending for the five days beginning with Cyber Monday on December 1, rose 9%. comScore also expects that the holiday online retail spending for the November - December period will be flat year-over-year.
In a statement, comScore chairman, Gian Fulgoni said, "The online holiday shopping season has picked up noticeably since Thanksgiving as consumers have given in to the holiday spirit -- and very attractive retailer discounts. Particularly encouraging is the growth of 9 percent in online sales that has occurred since Cyber Monday."
For the first 35 days of the holiday from November 1 to December 5, online spending was nearly flat with the year-ago period at $14.92 billion. However, kicking-off to the heaviest part of the online shopping season on Cyber Monday, online spending for the five days beginning with December 1 through to December 5 increased 9% to $3.74 billion from $3.42 billion reported in the prior-year period starting from Cyber Monday in 2007.
comScore also reported that two individual days, following Cyber Monday, raked-in an excess of $800 million in online spending. The largest online spending totaling $846 million was reported on Cyber Monday and the Tuesday following the Cyber Monday also achieved online spending of $823 million.
In the five days following and including Cyber Monday, product categories that were the fastest growing, in terms of dollar sales, were Sport & Fitness as well as Consumer Electronics. Significant price reductions on many items, including flat panel TVs, saw Sport & Fitness products sales surging 35% and Consumer Electronics product sales climbing 24% from last year.
In Dollar terms, Apparel & Accessories as well as Toys grew 16%, and Books & Magazines increased 10%, while Video Games, Consoles & Accessories rose 9%. Computer Hardware gained 2%, while Home, Garden & Furniture products remained flat with the prior-year period. The softest retail categories include Music, Movies & Videos falling 24%, Jewelry & Watches down 22% and Flowers, Greetings & Gifts declining 8%.
Online retail sales for the period from January to October 2008 totaled $102.14 billion, up 9% from $93.55 billion in the year-ago period. Online retail sales on Thanksgiving Day rose 6% to $288 million, and sales were up 1% on Black Friday to $534 million, while Cyber Monday sales climbed 15% to $846 million from last year. According to data received from eBay (EBAY) and Amazon.com (AMZN), top online selling items included Apple Inc's (AAPL) iPod and iPhone as well as Nintendo's Wii game console.
Visitor traffic to top retailer sites since and including Cyber Monday for the five-day period grew 2% to 121.27 million from the prior-year period. eBay topped the list with 36.63 million unique visitors, but was down 9% from last year. Amazon sites were next with 29.51 million unique visitors, up 10% from last year. The largest growth in traffic was seen at Apple with a growth of 29% to 11.94 million unique visitors. Wal-Mart (WMT) sites saw a 7% growth in traffic. The weakest traffic was seen at Dell sites, with a 17% drop at 5.61 million unique visitors. Overstock.com site traffic also dropped 15% to 5.87 million. Traffic at Target (TGT) was down 2%, while at Best Buy (BBY) traffic fell 8%.
Despite an ailing economy and the market uncertainty, U.S. retailers are breathing a sigh of relief after shoppers headed to stores and websites over the Thanksgiving Day weekend and spent more than they did last year. According to the NRF's 2008 Black Friday Weekend survey conducted by BIGresearch, 17% more shoppers visited stores and websites over the weekend, with a 7.2% rise in their average spending.
However, many retail experts are of the view that the shorter holiday shopping season, on top of an ailing economy, will hurt sales through Christmas. There are 27 shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, whereas there were 32 days last year.
Looking ahead, comScore expects that the holiday online retail spending for the November - December period will be flat over last year. This is compared to last year's growth of 19%.
SCOR closed Friday's regular trading session at $9.47, up $1.35 or 16.63% on a volume of 0.16 million shares, lower than the three-month average volume of 0.24 million shares. But in the extended hours trading, the stock lost $0.78 or 8.23% to $8.69.
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June 05, 2026 16:18 ET A busy week for economic news flow saw a slew of reports being released that reflected the trends in the U.S. labor market. In Europe, economic growth and inflation data gained attention as the European Central Bank and Bank of England head for policy session later in the month. In Asia, the monetary policy session of the Indian central bank was in focus as the country, a major oil importer, reels under the pressures of a weaker rupee and rising inflation.