Two weeks ago we ran a blog covering the Commerce Department’s report of retail sales for December 2009, which painted a dismal picture of how retailers did during the busiest time of year. Thankfully online retailers fared much better than their brick and mortar counterparts in December.
comScore Inc., which regularly researches and reports on internet shopping activity and trends, says December was perhaps the busiest one ever for online retailers. In its latest analysis of web activity, ComScore said more consumers flocked to the internet for deals this holiday season than ever before, as evidenced by the strong December showing, further fueling the notion that the web is becoming the de facto shopping source for more and more people every year.
One day in particular—Tuesday, December 15—saw more than $913 million in online sales, making it not only the highest grossing sales day of 2009, but the heaviest online spending day of all time.
Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix noted, “Holiday seasonality also fueled visitation to shipping sites, which continually see their highest volume of traffic during the month of December.”
Jewelry and luxury goods/accessories were the biggest mover among popular online product categories, growing 30% from November. Sports/outdoor goods were second, with a 25% increase while flowers/gifts jumped 23 percent from the month before to round out the top three.
comScore also tracked web traffic for popular shipping sites in December, all of which saw increases as consumers took advantage of free and/or discounted shipping for goods offered by many online retailers throughout the holiday season. UPS was far and away the busiest, with 19.7million visitors, with the post office and FedEx finishing second and third respectively.
Finally, the usual suspects of retailers led comScore’s list of biggest winners for December, with Amazon, Walmart, Apple, Target and Best Buy all reporting major traffic increases from their December 2008 numbers.
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