Online sales grow 24% so far this year over last, BizRate reports
Online retail spending in the third quarter grew 24% to $12.43 billion from $10.02 billion in last year’s third quarter, BizRate.com Inc. reports. At the same time, the number of online orders grew 47% to 101.34 million from 69.05 million, resulting in a 15% decrease in average order size to $123 from $145, BizRate says. In the first nine months of 2003, sales grew 24% from the first nine months of 2002, reaching $37.16 billion from $29.9 billion, BizRate reports.
For the fourth quarter, BizRate forecasts $18.35 billion in online sales, up 22% over last year`s $15.04 billion.
BizRate.com, a comparison shopping site, reports that its Online Research Value Panel in September found that 78% of online buyers said they deal shop because of tighter budgets. And, 96% said they comparison shop some, most or all of the time. 52% said they go directly to a merchant site when they start shopping; 48% use aggregators such as comparison shopping sites, shopping portals, search engines and auction sites to start their shopping. 62% of online buyers are female, BizRate reports.
Top categories in sales volume were computer hardware ($3.09 billion), electronics ($1.97 billion), apparel ($1.28 billion) and entertainment ($1.24 billion). The strongest growth in Q3 came from food and wine (up 208%), gifts and flowers (up 198%), office supplies (up 182%) and entertainment (up 181%).
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