»
Retail e-commerce (non-travel) increased 19 percent compared with Oct. 2006 levels and reached nearly $10 billion (excluding auctions and large corporate purchases), according to comScore’s U.S. e-commerce spending figures for October, writes MarketingCharts.
Total e-commerce spending, including travel, totaled nearly $16.5 billion, according to the data. (See table of U.S. e-commerce spending, Oct. 2007 vs. Oct. 2006.)
The October growth marked a slight decline from growth rates observed earlier in the year: Retail e-commerce sales in the first three quarters of the year were approximately 21 percent more than in the year-earlier period. (See table of U.S. e-commerce spending, Q1-Q3 2007 vs. Q1-Q3 2006.)
“October e-commerce activity often gives us a glimpse of what to expect during the holiday season,” said comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni.
“That online sales growth rates diminished slightly in October is not entirely unexpected, as many consumers are feeling the pinch of ballooning mortgages and gas prices, coupled with a decline in housing values. ”
Pre-Holiday Shopping Season
The videogames, consoles & accessories retail category posted the strongest gains in October compared with Oct. 2006, jumping 264 percent; sales of Nintendo Wii and Sony PlayStation consoles and accessories, as well as videogame Halo 3, continued to drive that growth.
(See table of top-gaining online retail categories, Oct. 2007 vs. Oct. 2006.)
Furniture, appliances & equipment also had a strong month, up 105 percent compared with a year earlier, followed by computer software (up 76 percent) and event tickets (up 43 percent).
Apparel & accessories, one of the largest online retail categories, grew just 5 percent.
“Soft online apparel sales in October mirror reports of declining same-store sales figures in retail apparel, as unseasonably warm weather across many part of the country appeared to dampen consumer demand,” Fulgoni said.
“Excluding apparel from our analysis, online retail sales actually grew at a healthier 22 percent rate. Assuming that apparel sales rebound during November and December, this suggests that 2007 may well see another merry Christmas for online retailers.”
All sectors of the media business will suffer from the weakened economy in 2008 and 2009, with a slump in local advertising particularly hurting newspapers and local TV, according to a new projection from Goldman Sachs.
Broadcast nets will experience…
The New York Times is shuttering its International Herald Tribune site; NYTimes.com will soon host the international news normally reserved for its sister website.
The move is not about cost savings, but rather about growth, NYTimes.com general manager Vivian Schiller…
Unilever’s Vaseline set forth on an unusual research project in a small town in Alaska. Setting up a storefront, the company began giving away free bottles of lotion and asking recipients to name the person who had recommended they come…
Meet the Press, the show hosted by Tim Russert for 17 years before his death last June, is beginning to slip in ratings.
Last month, CBS’s Face the Nation pulled ahead of Meet the Press for the first time in two…
Bloggers collectively create nearly one million blog posts each day, and half of bloggers believe blogs will be a primary source of news and entertainment in the next five years, according to Technorati’s 2008 State of the Blogosphere Report, MarketingCharts writes.…
Wal-Mart and Costco reported same-store gains in September, with sales rising 2.4% and 9% respectively. Sales at Target stores open at least a year fell 3%, writes Retailer Daily.
Below, fiscal results from the discount retail giants:
Sales of food and…
