Study: Online holiday sales drop 3 percent

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Study: Online holiday sales drop 3 percent

Despite weak season, Amazon, Wal-Mart post traffic increases

January 02, 2009

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According to ComScore Chairman Greg Fulgoni, online sales for the 2008 online holiday shopping season decreased 3 percent versus a year ago, falling behind the organization's expectation of flat sales this year.

Reston, Va.--Online spending for the 2008 holiday season decreased 3 percent to $25.5 billion, compared with $26.3 billion for the corresponding shopping days last year, according to the latest research from ComScore.

The 2008 online holiday shopping season began Nov. 1 and ended Dec. 23, the last day to purchase online with the possibility of delivery by Christmas Eve.

"The 2008 online holiday shopping season has declined 3 percent versus a year ago, falling behind our expectation of flat sales this year," ComScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni said in a media release. "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."

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

EBay remained the most visited retail site with 85.4 million visitors, but saw a slight decline in visitors of 4 percent.

Meanwhile, three of the top five most visited sites recorded gains. Amazon Sites increased 7 percent to 76.2 million visitors, followed by Wal-Mart (up 4 percent to 51.5 million visitors) and Apple Inc. (up 19 percent to 35 million visitors).

Highlights of the 2008 online holiday shopping season include:

Dec. 9 (heaviest online shopping day): online sales up 1 percent to $887 million, compared with $881 million on Dec. 10, 2007.

Dec. 1 (Cyber Monday): online sales up 15 percent to $846 million, compared with $733 million on Cyber Monday 2007.

Nov. 28 (Black Friday): online sales up 1 percent to $534 million, compared with $531 million on Black Friday 2007.

Nov. 27 (Thanksgiving Day): online sales up 6 percent to $288 million, compared with $273 million on Thanksgiving Day 2007.

For the fourth quarter of 2008 (Oct. 1-Dec. 28), e-commerce spending is down 4 percent to $36.8 billion, compared with $38.4 billion for the same period in 2007. According to ComScore, this marks the first full quarter to record a negative growth rate in online sales since the company began tracking e-commerce in 2001.

ComScore measures the digital world and is a preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information, visit the company's Web site, Comscore.com/CompanyInfo.

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