Online Holiday Shopping Declines 3%

Posted on December 31, 2008

comScore is reporting that holiday season retail ecommerce spending for the holiday shopping season, beginning November 1 and ending December 23, shows a 3 percent versus the corresponding shopping days in 2007. comScore says this is the first decline for ecommerce sales since they started tracking it in 2001.

"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."

Online sales did not fall nearly as much as brick-and-mortar sales but it does show that even a growing area like online retail is not immune to this recession.