Online spending from Nov. 1 through Dec. 27 increased 19 percent to almost $28 billion, from $24 billion a year earlier, Reston, Virginia-based ComScore Inc. said today in a statement. Sales growth trailed last year's 26 percent.
Discounts by Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, and Best Buy Co., the biggest U.S. consumer electronics chain, weren't enough to get consumers to loosen their purse strings. The Reuters/University of Michigan final index of consumer sentiment for December dropped to 75.5, the lowest since October 2005.
``Uppermost on the mind of consumers was the price tag,'' Kurt Barnard, president of Barnard's Retail Forecasting in Nutley, New Jersey, said in an interview. ``This made for a very difficult holiday season.''
Shoppers waited for discounts as online sales the day after Christmas totaled $545 million, more than double revenue on the same day in 2006. Consumers ``were willing, and able, to take advantage of late-season promotions and price discounts,'' ComStore Chairman Gian Fulgoni said in the statement.
ComScore hasn't recorded online sales growth of less than 20 percent since it began reporting the figures in 2002. Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Circuit City Stores Inc. offered discounts of 50 percent or more and promoted savings for in-store pickup of products purchased online to attract shoppers.
Internet Shopping
Spending through Web sites, which makes up more than 3 percent of all retail sales, may climb to $29.5 billion in November and December, ComScore estimated. That's less than the 26 percent growth in online sales during the holidays in 2006.
The slower growth mirrors the patterns in traditional retail sales. The 2007 holiday shopping season's sales may increase at the slowest pace in five years as consumers tightened household budgets because of record high oil and declines in home prices. Spending in November and December may rise 4 percent this year, according to National Retail Federation estimates.
Customer visits at U.S. stores declined for the fourth- straight week in the seven days through Dec. 22, the latest period reported on by Chicago-based ShopperTrak RCT Corp. Shoppers curtailed trips to malls in reaction to higher gasoline costs. Consumer traffic to retail locations fell 11 percent that week, the research firm said.
Retailers typically count on November and December for ringing up a fifth of their annual sales.
