Online retail sales grew 6% in 2008 to $130.1 billion, comScore Inc. said in a report released today. It was the lowest growth rate since the web measurement firm started tracking e-commerce in 2001.
Year-over-year growth peaked at 15% in April, then tumbled for eight consecutive months, reaching negative territory in November and December, as the economic crisis put a damper on holiday spending. Online sales declined 3% in both November and December, compared to the same months in 2007.
By comparison, advance estimates by the U.S. Department of Commerce show that general merchandise sales in 2008 fell 0.1% from 2007.
The precipitous decline in online sales in the second half of the year was part of the overall decline in consumer spending and does not diminish the long-term prospects for Internet commerce, says comScore senior analyst Andrew Lipsman. “Obviously, the channel itself is going to be dependent on the overall consumer economy,” Lipsman says. “But it is continuing to bring new buyers and, as a result, when the retail economy recovers we can expect to see very healthy growth rates again.”
Online retail sales grew 20.2% in 2007 over the previous year, according to comScore, extending a string of several years in which growth exceeded 20%.
Online travel spending grew 9% in 2008 to $84.3 billion. Combining travel and online retail sales, e-commerce grew 7% to $214.4 billion, comScore says.
The video game category registered the fastest growth among retail segments in 2008, and music, movies and video the biggest decline. Here are the growth rates by retail category for 2008, according to comScore:
- Video games, consoles & accessories 29%
- Home, garden & furniture 25%
- Sports & fitness 25%
- Event tickets 13%
- Consumer electronics 9%
- Apparel & accessories 4%
- Computer hardware -5%
- Toys & hobbies -7%
- Books & magazines -8%
- Flowers, greetings & gifts -10%
- Office supplies -10%
- Jewelry & watches -12%
- Computer software (excluding PC games) -18%
- Music, movies & video -23%
In its “2008 Digital Year in Review” report released today, comScore also reported:
- The total number of U.S. Internet users grew 4% in 2008, reaching 190.7 million individuals in December.
- Google sites took over the top position as the most-visited web properties in April, and retained that position for the rest of the year. Unique visitors to Google sites grew 12% to 149 million by year end, on growth in its largest sites, Google.com, YouTube.com and Blogger.com.
- Web users conducted some 137 billion searches on the top five U.S. search engines in 2008, a 21% increase over 2007. The number of unique searchers increased 6% and searches per user grew 16%. Google sites accounted for 85 billion searches in 2008 and 90% of the year-over-year growth, comScore says.
Gian Fulgoni, executive chairman and co-founder of comScore, will speak at the Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition, June 15-18 in Boston, in a session entitled Understanding Consumer Behavior in an Uncertain Economy
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