Retail Industry
Industry: Email Alert RSS FeedOnline sales exception to soft holiday trend - online sales grow during Christmas season
DSN Retailing Today, Jan 6, 2003 by Mike Troy
NATIONWIDE DSNRT REPORT -- Amid talk of a challenging retail environment and reports of disappointing holiday sales, one bright spot that went largely unnoticed during this past season was the resurgence of online sales growth. Based on sales trends through Dec. 13, online sales at non-travel Web sites were on track to grow 30% to approximately $14 billion during the calendar fourth quarter when compared to sales of $10.8 billion during the prior year's fourth quarter, according to comScore Networks, a provider of online sales information.
That level of growth is comparable to the 28% to 30% gains achieved during the first, second and third quarters of the year, which puts online sales at non-travel Web sites on track for annual sales of approximately $43.5 billion, a 29% increase over 2001 sales of $33.7 billion.
Most RecentRetail Articles
- TJX Proves It's the Right Retailer for the Times
- Pizza and Cupcakes Keep 'em Coming to 7-Eleven as Cigarette Business Slides
- Nordstrom, Saks Sales Turnaround Spells Hope for Department Stores
- Dollar Stores Holding New Shoppers Even as Recovery Buoys Rivals
- Faced with Walmart and History, Retailers Can't Avoid Deep Holiday Discounts
- More »
Part of the reason holiday season sales reaccelerated in 2002 relates back to fulfillment issues during the 2000 holiday season that soured customers on online shopping when their gifts didn't arrive in time for Christmas.
"Keep in mind in 2000 a lot of people had poor experiences shopping online," said Michelle David Adams, vp of retail solutions with comScore Networks, a provider of online sales information.
Fulfillment has since been improved and customers who bought online during the '01 holiday season returned in 2002.
"What has happened is people have experienced the convenience of shopping online and gained confidence in it," said Adams, attributing the growth to the fact that, "more people are trying (online shopping) and more people who made purchases online and had a favorable experience with it are channeling more of their dollars online."
Adams should know. ComScore Networks is considered the leading provider of information about consumers' online shopping behavior and its numbers are about as close to actual point-of-sale data as is possible to obtain.
"We make our observations based on the actual behavior of 1.5 million consumers who visit 50,000 e-commerce sites so there isn't a lot of room for subjectivity," Adams said.
Online sales growth last year and during the holidays also had a lot to do with retailers helping their own cause. Web sites have improved, retailers are more realistic with the guarantees they make about when merchandise needs to be ordered to arrive by Christmas and there continues to be closer integration of the online shopping experience with physical stores.
In that regard, one of the best examples this holiday season was in the consumer electronics area, where retailers such as Best Buy and Circuit City offered in-store pick-up of items ordered online. Circuit City was particularly aggressive and promoted the capability in TV ads. Circuit City also highlighted on its Web site that orders placed online before 3 p.m. on Christmas Eve could be picked up at stores before they closed at 6 p.m.
Those last-minute online shoppers who wanted merchandise delivered had that option with most conventional retailers until Dec. 21 if they wanted to guarantee arrival by Christmas Eve, or until Dec. 22 in the case of Amazon.com.
Although it is too early to forecast whether the rate of online sales growth this year will accelerate further from 2002 levels sales are certain to increase, according to Adams.
FASTEST GROWING NON-TRAVEL E-COMMERCE CATEGORIES
SALES: % CHANGE
11/1/02 VS.
CATEGORY 11/13/02 PRIOR YEAR
HOME & GARDEN $458 79%
JEWELRY & WATCHES 173 73
FURNITURE & APPLIANCES 146 71
TOYS 348 69
SPORT & FITNESS 199 66
MOVIES & VIDEO 178 49
APPAREL & ACCESSORIES 1,293 39
VIDEO GAMES 111 28
FLOWERS & GIFTS 166 28
CONSUMER ELECTRONICS 824 19
Source: comScore Networks
Most Recent Business Articles
- Multiple criteria evaluation and optimization of transportation systems
- Multi-criteria analysis procedure for sustainable mobility evaluation in urban areas
- A two-leveled multi-objective symbiotic evolutionary algorithm for the hub and spoke location problem
- Multi-criteria analysis for evaluating the impacts of intelligent speed adaptation
- The development of Taiwan arterial traffic-adaptive signal control system and its field test: a Taiwan experience
Most Recent Business Publications
Most Popular Business Articles
- 7 tips for effective listening: productive listening does not occur naturally. It requires hard work and practice - Back To Basics - effective listening is a crucial skill for internal auditors
- FAS 109: a primer for non-accountants - Financial Accounting Standards Board's "Statement 109: Accounting for Income Taxes"
- Design a commission plan that drives sales - Sales Commissions
- Too Young to Rent a Car? - 25-years-old the minimum age for car renting - Brief Article
- Getting the global view: Nestle, led by Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, climbs to the #1 spot in this year's Best Companies for Leaders



