New York, NY, December 29--Online sales surpassed the high range of estimates this year, thanks to a rush of last-minute shoppers who snapped up iPods, computers and the occasional power drill.
According to comScore Networks, online sales through the middle of last week reached $13.5 billion, a 28 percent increase from last year's holiday season. ComScore had expected growth of 23 percent to 26 percent, while other firms, like Jupiter Research, had predicted a 19 percent rise in sales. Those forecasts were consistent with the idea that the days of breakaway online retail sales growth in the United States were nearing an end.
By mid-December, online spending was on track to reach the low end of those estimates. But because more Internet merchants continued taking orders much later into the Christmas season than in years past, e-commerce sales shot up by 57 percent in the week ended Dec. 19, compared with the same period last year.
"That literally transformed the season," said Graham Mudd, an analyst for comScore.
By contrast, offline holiday sales are forecast to record much more modest gains. According to the National Retail Federation, an industry trade group, total retail sales for November and December were on pace to reach $220 billion, an increase of 4.5 percent from last year.
Research firms and Internet shopping executives said the typical online holiday favorites of computers, consumer electronics and apparel were again the dominant items. According to Shopping.com, a comparison shopping site, the most sought-after gift this holiday season was the Sony PlayStation 2 game console, with Apple's iPod reaching the top spot late in the shopping season. The iPod proved so popular that many Web sites, including Amazon, sold out.
But comScore, which monitors the Internet surfing and spending activity of more than two million people, also reported stronger- than-usual sales in other categories, like home and garden; flowers and gifts; and consumer goods. Sales in each of those categories jumped by more than 40 percent from last year.
Gift cards, in particular, helped generate a considerable amount of sales, and Apple, it turns out, may be responsible for a large part of that. Amazon said that $15 iTunes gift cards redeemable at Apple's online music store were the most popular item on its site last week.
Amazon would not comment on the most popular categories or overall sales on the site this holiday season, but Craig Berman, a company spokesman, said the site had seen "really consistent traffic through the whole season."
At midday Wednesday, he said, there were roughly 440,000 shoppers on the site, which, for that late in the holiday shopping season, "was still a lot of people."
Amazon and eBay remained the twin giants of online retail this holiday season, with Amazon attracting about 20 million visitors in each of the first two weeks of December. EBay attracted 31 million, according to comScore. Walmart.com was third, with about 12 million.
The growth in the home and garden categories could be traced to those sites, as well as companies like Home Depot, Sears and Lowe's, which have directed more energy to the Internet this year. Home Depot, for instance, increased its Web sales significantly over the past year, according to Shelley Nandkeolyar, a company vice president.
Nandkeolyar said last week that the site was recording a "strong growth in sales," thanks to several factors. First, the company has added at least 3,500 more items for sale a 50 percent jump from last year with particular emphasis in the home and garden categories.
Home Depot has also changed the design of its site to accentuate its role as a holiday gift source, with Christmas decorations and a tab for the site's "Gift Center" featured on the home page.
