E-Commerce Sales Drop During Holiday Season

Online sales for the holiday period from Nov. 1 to Dec. 23 fell 3% versus the prior year, marking the first decline in online spending since comScore started tracking online sales in 2001. Online spending of $25.5 billion during the period were below comScore's expectations for flat sales in the period.

“The 2008 online holiday shopping season has declined 3 percent versus year ago, falling behind our expectation of flat sales this year,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. “This marks the first time we’ve seen negative growth rates for the holiday season since we began tracking e-commerce in 2001. The combination of having five fewer shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas and the severe economic headwinds faced by consumers has made this a really tough season for retailers, both offline and online.”

According to the metrics firm, Apple and Amazon.com were among the top traffic gainers in an overall bleak period. Apple's sites attracted 35 million visitors between Dec. 1 and Dec. 24, up 19% from a year ago, while Amazon's sites drew 76.2 million visitors over the same period, 7% more than a year ago. Wal-Mart's web traffic rise by 4% to a total of 51.5 million visitors.

eBay was the most visited retail site with 85.4 million visitors but its traffic declined 4%. Circuit City, which is in bankruptcy proceedings, saw traffic fall off by 21% to 15.5 visitors.