Black Friday Sees $531m in Online Spend, Cyber Monday to Cross $700m
IT News Online Staff
2007-11-26
comScore Inc. has released an update of holiday season e-commerce spending covering the first 23 days (November 1 - 23) of the November - December 2007 holiday season. More than $9.3 billion has been spent online during the season-to-date, marking a 17% gain versus the corresponding days last year.
Online retail spending was strong on both Thanksgiving Day (up 29% to $272 million) and "Black Friday" (up 22% to $531 million), outpacing the season-to-date growth rate.
"The Friday after Thanksgiving is known for heavy spending in retail stores, but it's clear that consumers are increasingly turning to the Internet to make their holiday purchases," said comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni. "Online spending on Black Friday has historically represented an early indicator of how the rest of the season will shake out. That the 22% growth rate versus last year is outpacing the overall growth rate for the first three weeks of the season should be seen as a sign of positive momentum."
"Online retailers will also certainly be paying close attention to what happens on Cyber Monday, which will provide an even clearer indication of what lies ahead for the rest of the season. Based on the growth rates we've seen so far this season and historical consumer behavior patterns, we would expect Cyber Monday sales be even stronger than Black Friday's and to exceed $700 million," said Fulgoni.
"While this would make it the heaviest online shopping day on record, we can expect to see even stronger days ahead as the 2007 shopping season progresses into December," added Fulgoni.
The hottest category continues to be video games, consoles and accessories, which is up 134% versus the corresponding days last year. Sales of Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3, and popular game Halo 3 continue to drive growth in the category.
The furniture, appliances and equipment category (up 36%) is joined by consumer electronics (up 21%) and sport and fitness as the retail categories demonstrating above average growth. Apparel and accessories is now growing in line with the overall trend in online retail following a soft start to the season when warm weather dampened winter apparel sales. Online sales of toys are up just 9% for the season-to-date, with toy safety concerns appearing to be weighing down the category.
|
