Not all eager holiday shoppers were lined up outside KB Toys and other early-opening stores at 5 a.m. last Friday. Many were shopping online.
Early numbers show that online retail sales grew significantly last Friday, up 36% to $200 million for the day from $145 million on the day after Thanksgiving last year, according to comScore Networks Inc.’s Media Metrix division. Online retail sales for the entire week were up 31% to $1.2 billion from $895 billion for the same week last year. The numbers are preliminary, comScore says, subject to possible revision.
Similarly, the Nielsen/NetRatings Holiday eCommerce Index reports that 28% more visitors went to online retail sites on Friday than the previous Friday, Nov. 21, and 19% more at-home visitors shopped online than the average over the previous four days.
However, the efforts of a few retailers to generate some Thanksgiving Day shopping buzz failed to have an impact on online retailing as a whole. Online shopping on Thanksgiving Day totaled $106 million, according to preliminary comScore numbers, 12% up from Thanksgiving Day in 2002. Activity that day reached only 50% of the average sales for the rest of the week.
In total retail shopping, sales on the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving were up 5.4% from the same days last year, reports ShopperTrak’s National Retail Sales Estimate.
The strongest online sales categories were Computer Software, Movies & Video, Music, and Video Games, which posted growth of 50-100% versus year-ago levels. Home & Garden, which has been performing well above average for much of this year, was up more than 60% last week. Sales at Apparel & Accessories, Consumer Electronics, and Toys retailers increased within a few percentage points of the online retail average, comScore reports.
ComScore expects online retail spending in November and December to grow 25-30% over last year to $12.1billion to $12.6 billion
Meantime, shopping portal and price comparison site MSN Shopping, owned by Microsoft Corp., reports traffic and spending at MSN Shopping were up 50% in November compared to November last year. Participating merchants increased by 30%, reports MSN Shopping, and traffic for the whole year is up 20%.
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