Retail e-commerce spending for the 31-day period ended Dec. 1 declined 2% to $12.03 billion versus the corresponding days last year, according to a survey by Internet measurement firm comScore.
Even so, online spending on Cyber Monday rose 15% to $846 million, comScore reported. The four-day period from Black Friday through Cyber Monday saw e-commerce spending jump 13% as both weekend days and Monday all achieved double-digit gains.
“Consumers are clearly responding positively to retailers aggressive online discounts,” said comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni. “With Cyber Monday promotions beginning in earnest over the Thanksgiving weekend, consumers have finally begun to open their wallets, setting off a streak of four consecutive days of extremely strong growth, and culminating in a Cyber Monday that racked up an impressive $846 million in online spending, up 15 percent over last year and ranking it as the second heaviest online spending day on record. This is an extremely encouraging development for retailers and we can but hope that their aggressive discounting has still left room for profits.”
Consumers Seeing Less Foot Traffic in Retail Stores
The most recent comScore holiday retail survey, conducted from Nov. 28 through Dec. 1, revealed that some additional insights into consumers view of the 2008 holiday shopping season.
Some of the key survey findings include:
“Consumers are clearly responding positively to retailers aggressive online discounts,” said comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni. “With Cyber Monday promotions beginning in earnest over the Thanksgiving weekend, consumers have finally begun to open their wallets, setting off a streak of four consecutive days of extremely strong growth, and culminating in a Cyber Monday that racked up an impressive $846 million in online spending, up 15 percent over last year and ranking it as the second heaviest online spending day on record. This is an extremely encouraging development for retailers and we can but hope that their aggressive discounting has still left room for profits.”
Consumers Seeing Less Foot Traffic in Retail Stores
The most recent comScore holiday retail survey, conducted from Nov. 28 through Dec. 1, revealed that some additional insights into consumers view of the 2008 holiday shopping season.
Some of the key survey findings include:
- More than half (51%) of consumers indicated that the level of promotions and discounts is higher this year than last year, while only 12% said that there appeared to be fewer, suggesting that retailers are having to be more aggressive in discounting to spur consumer spending.
- 39% of consumers said that there seemed to be fewer people out shopping in retail stores this year than last year, while only 7% thought there were more.
2008 Holiday Season To Date vs. Corresponding Days* in 2007 Non-Travel (Retail) Spending Excludes Auctions and Large Corporate Purchases Total U.S. Home/Work/University Locations Source: comScore, Inc. | |||
Holiday Season to Date | Millions ($) | ||
2007 | 2008 | Pct Change | |
November 1 December 1 | $12,217 | $12,025 | -2% |
Pre-Thanksgiving | $10,035 | $9,588 | -4% |
Thanksgiving and Later | $2,182 | $2,437 | 12% |
November 27 (Thanksgiving Day) | $272 | $288 | 6% |
November 28 (“Black Friday”) | $531 | $534 | 1% |
November 29-30 (Weekend) | $645 | $769 | 19% |
December 1 (“Cyber Monday”) | $733 | $846 | 15% |
