Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Online Holiday Sales Down 3 Percent; Dell Visitors Drop

Holiday shopping on e-commerce sites declined by 3 percent, according to the latest numbers released by comScore, which tracking online spending and internet traffic. comScore reported Tuesday that spending for the holiday season, beginning November 1st and ending December 23rd, totaled $25.5 billion, down 3 percent versus 2007. The results were the first decrease for holiday seasons since 2001, when comScore began gathering e-commerce statistics. comScore also reported the top e-commerce sites for the month, showing that sites with the most Internet traffic increases were HP, with a gain of 28 percent increase in visitors over last year; Apple, with a 19 percent increase; and Amazon, with a 7 percent gain. Round Rock-based Dell was among the top retail sites with the biggest drops in visitors over the same period, with a drop of 17 percent in unique visitors between December 1st and December 24th.