Nearly $19 billion has been spent online in the first 39 days (Nov. 1-Dec. 9) of the 2007 holiday season – an 18% gain versus the corresponding days last year, according to comScore’s update of holiday season e-commerce spending.
Thursday, Dec. 6, accounted for $803 million in online sales, up 28% versus a year ago – and the heaviest online spending day in history, comScore said.
Moreover, the week ended Dec. 9 accounted for $4.6 billion, the heaviest spending week of the season and up 20% versus a year ago.
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“Consumers seemingly restrained their early November holiday spending in the hopes of catching some attractive late-season deals, so we expect that the current week will outperform the past week as the heaviest of the season,” said comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni.
Online Retail Spending Peaks Mid-Day
During this year’s holiday season, online spending has peaked during the middle of the day, driven by the heavy influence of shopping from work, which has accounted for 45% of all e-commerce dollars spent this holiday season.
More than half of all online dollars were spent between 9:00 AM and 3:00 PM, with the heaviest spending (26.9%) occurring during the 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM time segment.
Nearly 10% of online spending occurred from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM and 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM, making them the peak individual hour segments during the day.
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Weekly Online Holiday Retail Sales
Some additional findings for the week ended Dec. 9:
- Consumer electronics experienced a strong week of online sales, up 43% versus year ago, outpacing its 23% growth rate for the season to date.
- Event tickets also had a particularly strong week, gaining 70% versus the corresponding period last year.
- Apparel outperformed its season-to-date growth rate of 16% with a 22% gain during the most recent week.
- Toy sales grew just 3% during the past week, lowering overall growth for the season to date to 14%.
