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Retail E-Commerce Sales Rise in Q3

U.S. retail e-commerce sales rose 4.5% in the third quarter of this year, from $32.5 billion in the third quarter of last year to $34 billion, according to the Department of Commerce. On an annual basis, they rose 1.8%, from $33.4 billion.

Year-to-date, they rose 1.8%, from $33.4 billion.

As a percentage of overall U.S. retail sales, e-commerce sales slightly rose on a quarterly basis, from 3.6% to 3.7%. On an annual basis, they rose from 3.4%.

Overall, U.S. retail sales totaled $922.2 billion, a 1.7% increase from $906.4 billion in Q2 2009 and a 7.5% decrease from $997 billion in Q3 2008, writes Retailer Daily.

The retail industry has displayed a number of signals this year suggesting e-commerce is growing in popularity with consumers. Amazon.com, the leading “pure play” e-commerce retailer, reported strong Q3 2009 results, with a 68% increase in net income and 28% increase in net sales.

In August, the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart, introduced Wal-Mart Marketplace, a new program that expands its online product assortment to more than one million items. Walmart Marketplace enables a select group of retailers to offer additional products at Walmart.com, expanding Wal-Mart’s assortment in categories including home, baby, apparel, and sporting goods.

In addition, e-commerce sales appear to be taking over the movie rental marketplace. While poor in-store DVD rentals contributed to plunging same-store sales for consumer entertainment retailer Blockbuster in Q3 2009, leading online movie rental retailer Netflix reported substantial increases in its revenues and subscriber base during the same period.

In addition, several research studies suggest e-commerce sales have been going up this year. A new report from payment solutions provider CyberSource shows that online fraud losses for U.S. and Canadian retailers are expected to drop 17.5%, from $4 billion to $3.3 billion. By eliminating close to one-fifth of bad online transactions, online retailers have boosted their sales results.

In March 2009, a study from comparison shopping company PriceGrabber and market research firm Market Reporter, U.S. consumers are reacting to the current economic crisis by doing more of their shopping online. The study also indicates online consumers are slowly becoming more willing to spend money.

More recently, the Shop.org Quarterly Online Sales Update showed that in Q3 2009, 72% of online U.S. retailers experienced increased sales.