Year-over-year growth in November online retail sales, at 24%, outpaced the rise in the number of visits to retail web sites, resulting in an increase of about 11% in per-visit spending, comScore Networks Inc. reports.
Online retail sales reached $11.75 billion for the period from Nov. 1 through Dec. 1, up 24% from $9.45 billion in the same period a year ago, comScore says. But the number of visitors to retail sites grew 13% and the number of visits is up 12%, producing about 11% more sales per visit.
“In the same way that offline retailers wouldn’t think of only using foot traffic counts to gauge in-store sales, savvy online retailers understand visitation to retail web sites alone is not a sufficient metric for measuring sales success,” says comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. “Online site visitation alone does not indicate online sales trends because it doesn’t reflect the rate of visitor-to-buyer conversion, nor the value of buyers’ shopping basket.”
ComScore, which also reports that online retail spending hit $608 million on each of Nov. 27 and Nov. 28, attributes the increased spending per visit to consumers’ increased comfort with e-commerce and their willingness to purchase high-ticket items online.
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