Consumers Spend Less Online for Holidays

New York, NY, Dec. 31, 2008--Consumers spent less online this holiday season compared to last, comScore Inc. said.

E-retail sales for the period between Nov. 1 and Dec. 23 totaled $25.5 billion, down 3% compared to $26.3 billion for the same time period last year, the web measurement firm reports.

“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.”

E-commerce sales for Q4 also will be lower than last year, comScore said. For the period of Oct. 1 to Dec. 28 compared to the same calendar days in 2007, e-commerce spending is down 4% to $36.8 billion from $38.4 billion. The fourth quarter will mark the first quarter in which e-commerce sales declined since comScore began tracking online sales.