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December 31, 2008
Online Holiday Shopping Down 3% Overall for 2008
It's the news I hoped I didn't have to share, but alas it has arrived. We hoped during the flat Black Friday and decent Cyber Monday that we could edge out the holiday season with a slight gain. But while web site traffic was up by 5% to retail sites this holiday season, it didn't translate into an increase in sales. Instead, e-tailers saw an overall decline in holiday sales of 3% in 2008, according to comScore
“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.”
The good news, in my humble opinion, is that 2007, the year to which 2008 is being compared to, was somewhat of a banner year. It was up 19% over 2006. So, 2008 was still up 16% over two years ago. 2006 was also a huge year over 2005. I think when we hear Wall Street folks talk about the markets correcting themselves, this 3% decline is symbolic of that. I just don't know how the growth of online sales in 2006-2007 could really have been sustained.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on December 31, 2008 8:19 AM
Comments
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Marie Cruickshank December 31, 2008 1:11 PM
Good overview and astute to identify 2007 as a banner year for online shopping. The fact that 2008 was up at all is great for the online business community. Happy New Year & Best wishes to all for success in 2009!
Dee December 31, 2008 2:04 PM
Although 2007 was a banner year, I am hoping that after this economic dip things will get better for all online retailers as well as brick and mortar stores alike.
Sarah January 1, 2009 9:56 PM
Has anyone seen any stats for online traffic for 2009 yet? It sure looks like 2009 will be the year the internet sees a down turn.
Weathertech March 4, 2009 10:42 PM
This is good info. Will you be posting up the 1st quarter of 2009 stats?
scott bintz April 12, 2009 11:22 AM
Do you know if ebay is predicted to be higher or lower this year?
Tonneau Cover October 29, 2009 6:39 PM
