Reston, VA, December 4, 2006--ComScore Networks released data on consumer online non-travel (retail) spending at U.S. sites during the first 31 days of the 2006 holiday season to date, which began on November 1.
Total online retail spending reached $11.7 billion through December 1, representing a 24-percent increase versus the corresponding days in 2005.
"Online consumer spending during the holiday season continues to surge, growing 24 percent versus a year ago," said Gian Fulgoni, chairman of ComScore Networks. "Buoyed by strong consumer spending during recent days like Cyber Monday (November 27th, 2006) and Tuesday November 28th--which each saw $608 million in spending--online sales have been strong throughout the holiday season."
ComScore also reported traffic growth to retail sites for November 2006 versus a year ago. Although retail e-commerce spending has risen at a rate of 24 percent versus last year, retail site visitation is growing at about half that rate. Specifically, the number of visitors to retail sites has grown 13 percent while the total number of visits has grown 12 percent, demonstrating that consumers are spending about 11 percent more this year on a "per-visit" basis.
"In the same way that offline retailers wouldn't think of only using foot traffic counts to gauge in-store sales, savvy online retailers understand that visitation to retail Web sites alone is not a sufficient metric for measuring sales success," commented Mr. Fulgoni. "Online site visitation alone does not indicate online sales trends because it doesn't reflect the rate of visitor-to-buyer conversion nor the value of buyers' shopping basket. This season, ComScore's unique sales tracking metrics are of greater importance to the online commerce industry because it's clear that consumers are increasing their spending per visit to online e-commerce sites. We believe this reflects consumers' increased comfort with e-commerce and their willingness to purchase higher ticket items online."
