"After a very strong first week of December, e-commerce sales growth slowed somewhat during the most recent week," said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. "However, the week still managed to see a few particularly strong spending days, with sales of $887 million on Tuesday, December 9 surpassing Green Monday last year (December 10, 2007) as the heaviest online spending day on record. With Christmas now fast approaching, look for online retailers to continue to offer enticing last-minute deals, including discounts on expedited shipping, to spur a final wave of spending. In fact, some retailers are even willing to offer free shipping as late as December 18 this year with a guarantee that the shipment will arrive by Christmas Eve. It will be interesting to see the impact that this offer has in terms of pulling additional spending from retail stores to the online channel."
Top Performing Retail Categories Since Cyber Monday
The fastest growing product categories during the period from December 1 through December 12 were Apparel & Accessories (up 21 percent), Books & Magazines (up 18 percent), and Flowers, Greetings & Gift (up 18 percent). Apparel & Accessories, the second largest online retail category by dollar sales, has seen sales growth as a result of aggressive discounting and unseasonably cold weather across many parts of the country. Following a strong week of Cyber Monday that was driven by large discounts on products such as flat screen TVs, sales of consumer electronics have slowed in the most recent week. The softest retail categories include Music, Movies & Videos (down 25 percent) and Office Supplies (down 33 percent).
