Online Holiday Spending Hits Record 4 7 Billion

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Online Holiday Spending Hits Record $4.7 Billion

By: Mike Sachoff
2009-12-18

Online holiday spending has reached nearly $21 billion, representing a 4 percent increase over last year, according to the latest report from comScore.

The most recent week ending December 13 reached $4.74 billion in spending, ranking as the heaviest online spending week on record. The previous high of $4.70 billion happened during the week ending December 16, 2007.

"This most recent week began with five consecutive strong online spending days surpassing $700 million, followed by a fairly upbeat weekend," said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. "Six weeks into the online holiday shopping season and with a cumulative growth rate of 4-percent, we are tracking slightly above our forecast of a 3-percent growth rate versus year ago, which appears to be partially attributable to continued heavy promotional activity among retailers."

"Though early reports indicated that retailers had pulled back on inventory this season and would not be discounting as heavily late into the season, data from Shoplocal.com show that online retailer promotion activity is continuing at a high rate with the number of offers in the last week up 21 percent versus year ago."

comScore says for years there has been a perception that Cyber Monday is the heaviest online spending day of the year. In fact, Cyber Monday represents the first major uptick in online holiday spending, while heavier spending continues to build until mid-December.

In 2007, eBay and PayPal suggested that online spending actually peaks on the second Monday in December and called it "Green Monday." Monday tends to be the heaviest online spending day of the week, because holiday spending is till dependent on work-based online shopping and because people tend to be in the office longer hours on Mondays. This year, "Green Monday" fell on December 14 and is likely to be the heaviest online spending day of they and possibly all-time.

View All Articles by Mike Sachoff

About the Author:
Mike is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest ebusiness news.


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