• by Masha Geller , December 10, 2002

I’m trying desperately not to talk about online holiday spending (partly because I haven’t even begun thinking about my shopping yet, and talking about everyone else’s completed shopping lists is making me feel like a real slacker), but consumers broke a major record recently, which is definitely worth a mention here.

According to just-released comScore data, consumers spent a record $2.0 billion online during the post-Thanksgiving week, reflecting 34% growth versus last year's post-Thanksgiving week.

What’s more significant, spending on non-travel goods and services increased 38% versus year-ago to a record $1.4 billion, while travel spending increased 24% to $567 million. As comScore VP Michelle David Adams pointed out, it’s interesting to note that while travel spending was the dominant force pushing e-commerce trends higher in the off-season. Cumulative consumer online sales from Nov. 1, 2002 through the week ending Dec. 6 reached $8.2 billion, up 29% versus the same period last year. Non-travel sales increased 17% versus year-ago to $5.2 billion, while travel e-commerce increased 58% to $3.0 billion.

The fastest growing major merchandise categories for the same cumulative period (Nov. 1 through week ending Dec. 9) versus last year are: Home and Garden, up 72% to $328 million; Sports and Fitness, up 67% to $153 million; and Jewelry and Watches, up 66% to $121 million.

Speaking of online travel, Nielsen//NetRatings today reported that overall, traffic to airline websites has made a full recovery since September 11 last year, growing 9.6% in October (month-to-month). What’s interesting is that year-over-year, traffic to the United Airlines site jumped nearly 17%, but traffic to their reservation page, was down 15.3% from a year ago. Moral of the story? Traffic isn’t everything. It’s all about the number of tickets sold.