• by Masha Geller , December 13, 2001

The many numbers released today by several research companies are enough to make anyone's head spin.

The first came from CMRi, which said that online ad spending dropped 17.1% for the first three quarters of 2001 compared to the same time period in 2000, totaling $2.1 billion. This news was not unexpected, considering that two days ago CMR reported that offline ad spending dropped 7.8% for all media for the first three quarters.

But it wasn't all bad news. Second, Nielsen//NetRatings and Harris Interactive reported that ecommerce spending in November 2001 jumped 10% from November 2000, which shows that in the face of national concerns and a softer U.S. economy, there were ten percent more shoppers and dollars spent in November versus a year ago. Spending rose 14% from October to November, which is half of the 29% increase seen during the same months in 2000. The good news, however, is that ecommerce sales rebounded to $5.3 billion, on par with pre-September spending levels.

Naturally, the above findings don't mean all's well in the land of commerce. Sales at U.S. retailers posted a record drop in November, retracing most of the previous month's gain as consumers steered clear of auto dealer lots, according to a Commerce Department report also released today. Retail sales fell by a larger-than-expected 3.7%, the largest monthly drop since records have been kept in their current form since 1992. Sales outside of the automotive sector were not as weak, however, posting a 0.5% decline.

And finally, Jupiter Media Metrix chimed in with the third installment of its weekly Holiday 2001 E-Commerce Series. The Shopping Index for the week ending Dec. 9, 2001 increased 50% versus the same week last year, climbing from 34.9 million to 52.4 million unique visitors, which is a record high for the index, Jupiter said. Additionally, the index was up 1% versus the previous week, when there were 51.7 million visitors.

The bottom line? The economy is a little shaky and advertisers may be slashing their budgets for both offline and online media, but consumers are shopping online and in record numbers. But I think we knew that already...