Online retail spending rises 16%

Online retail spending rose 16% year-over-year for the week ended Oct. 13, to $968 million from $834 million, comScore Networks Inc.’s Media Metrix division reports. That doubled the 8% increase for the first week of October to return closer to the higher growth rates of September, when weekly year-over-year increases hit 15-30% or more.

By comparison, total retail sales for the week ended Oct. 11 grew 2.3% year-over-year, the softest year-over-year increase since June 7, reports ShopperTrak’s National Retail Sales Estimate. "Sales were greatly impacted by Mother Nature," said Michael Niemira, lead consultant for ShopperTrak. "The return of warm weather pared any strong desire by consumers to think of fall merchandise. But this dip is unlikely to threaten the longer-run sales trend, which is relatively upbeat."

Online travel spending for the week ended Oct. 13 grew 23% to $743 million from $607 million, comScore reports.