According to The Journal's Digits blog, the health of U.S. online shopping is truly in the eyes of the beholder. To wit, comScore just reported that national online spending in the third quarter
slipped 2% to $29.6 billion versus last year -- which represents the first time since comScore began tracking the figures that online spending has shrunk for two quarters in a row. Earlier in the
week, however, Forrester Research concluded that online sales in November and December are likely to grow 8% year-over-year. Moreover, a survey Forrester conducted with the National Retail Foundation
found that online retailers reported sales in the third quarter grew 16%. Why all the confusion? The two researchers take very different approaches to understanding how we shop. ComScore measures the
online behavior of a nationwide panel of volunteers who allow the company to track everything they do online, while Forrester surveys retailers and consumers, as well as takes in data from other
sources such as ads bought by online retailers from Google, to come up with a more holistic point of view.
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