• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, December 19, 2008

comScore reported its tracking of holiday season retail e-commerce spending for the first 37 days of the November - December 2008 holiday season. In addition, Compete, Inc. provides a additional perspective of the shopping traffic.

For the holiday season through December 7, $15.63 billion has been spent online, essentially the same level compared to the corresponding days last year, says comScore. During the first week since Cyber Monday (December 1 - December 7), sales totaled $4.45 billion, up 7 percent versus year ago.

2008 Holiday Season Retail SpendingTo Date vs. Corresponding Days in 2007Total U.S. Home/Work/University Locations
Holiday Season to Date	Millions ($)
	2007	2008	Pct Change
November 1 - December 7	$15,624	$15,628	0%
December 1 - 7	$4,140	$4,449	7%
Source: comScore, Inc, December 2008.??

 comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni, said  "... The compressed shopping period between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year means that there is now a greater sense of urgency in order to get all of one's shopping completed in time... "

 An analysis of referral activity reveals that 33.4 percent of all online sales in 2008 were driven by referral activity, up slightly from 32.8 percent in 2007.

While search remains the dominant referral activity, accounting for 55 percent of referred dollar sales during the season-to-date, it is down slightly from 57 percent last year. Meanwhile, e-mail has accounted for 16 percent of referred dollars, up 5 percentage points from last year, reflecting retailers' heavier use of e-mail marketing programs this season.

Source of Referred  E-Commerce Retail Dollars Dec. 1 - Dec. 7, 2008 vs. Corresponding Shopping Days in 2007 Total U.SHome/Work/University Locations
Referral Tactic	e-Commerce Sales by Source of Referral
	2007	2008
Search	56.7%	54.5%
e-mail	11.0%	16.1%
Comparison Shopping	2.5%	4.7%
Coupons	1.1%	1.8%
Other Categories	28.7%	22.9%
Source: comScore, Inc., December 2008

The fastest growing product categories during the period from December 1 through December 5 were Sport & Fitness and Consumer Electronics (which saw sales surge as a result of significant price reductions on many items, including flat panel TVs.)

Apparel & Accessories, the second largest retail category in terms of dollar sales (after Computer Hardware) during this period, also experienced strong gains. The softest retail categories include Music, Movies & Videos, and Jewelry & Watches.

Growth in Retail E-Commerce Retail Spending Categories by Dollar SalesDec. 1- Dec. 5, 2008 vs. Corresponding Shopping Days in 2007 Total U.S. Home/Work/University Locations
Retail Category	Y/Y Percent Change in Category Sales ($)
Sport & Fitness	35%
Consumer Electronics	24%
Apparel & Accessories	16%
Toys	16%
Books & Magazines	10%
Video Games, Consoles & Accessories	9%
Computer Hardware	2%
Home, Garden & Furniture	0%
Flowers, Greetings & Gifts	-8%
Jewelry & Watches	-22%
Music, Movies & Videos	-24%
Source: comScore, Inc, December 2008

During the five-day period since Cyber Monday, traffic to the retail site category is up 2 percent versus year ago, with many sites drawing a substantial number of visitors. eBay topped the list, while three of the top ten retailer sites saw gains versus year ago.

Visitor Growth at Top Retailer SitesDec. 1- Dec. 5, 2008 vs. Corresponding Shopping Days in 2007 Total U.S. Home/Work/University Locations
	Unique Visitors (000)
	2007	2008	Percent Change
Total Retail Site Category	118,393	121,271	2%
eBay	40,180	36,631	-9%
Amazon Sites	26,859	29,505	10%
Wal-Mart	18,183	19,514	7%
Target Corporation	16,273	15,905	-2%
Apple Inc.	9,290	11,943	29%
Best Buy Sites	9,350	8,561	-8%
JCPenney Sites	6,657	6,435	-3%
Overstock.com	6,930	5,874	-15%
Toysrus Sites	6,434	5,969	-7%
Dell	6,740	5,611	-17%?
Source: comScore, Inc., December 2008

  

2008 Holiday Online Retail Spending by Key Time Period Online Retail Holiday Consumer Spending Total U.S. Home/Work/University Locations Versus Corresponding Shopping Days in 2007 Relative to Thanksgiving
	Millions ($)
	2007	2008	Pct Change
January - October	$93,551	$102,144	9%
comScore Holiday Season Forecast (Nov-Dec)	$29,169	$29,200	0%
November 27 (Thanksgiving Day)	$273	$288	6%
November 28 (Black Friday)	$531	$534	1%
December 1 (Cyber Monday)	$733	$846	15%
Source: comScore, Inc., December 2008

And, retail visitors as seen from a different perspective from Compete Data, Holiday Retail Shopping. Online traffic surveyed during Thanksgiving

Weekend through Cyber Monday.

The Compete study notes that  despite the slowdown in offline traffic, consumers continue to flock to the Web for their holiday shopping with department stores as the greatest beneficiaries of this trend. ,Traffic to department store Web sites rose an impressive 14% on Cyber Monday this year compared to last.

Additionally, says the report, once consumers went online, they tended to look for major deals and were shopping with the purpose of finding the best online discounts.  

Of the top 100 retailer sites, 47% of Cyber Monday traffic came from a coupon Web site in 2007, and in 2008, 62% came from a coupon site,  a 23.1% increase Y/Y.

 In general for Cyber Monday, the number of purchases was up 26% Y/Y, with coupon sites providing 62% of the traffic to the top 100 Retailers and 53% to the major department stores - an increase of 23 and 14%, respectively. 

Retail Web Site Visitors 2008 vs Corresponding Shopping Days in 2007
Unique Visitors	2007	2008	% change
Total for Week
to Top 100 Retail	106,537,835	109,974,572	3.1%
to Dept. Stores	55,865,042	60,976,095	8.4%
to Coupon Sites	27,934,489	28,038,219	0.4%
% Top 100 - Coupon	20%	21%	1.3%
% Dept. Stores - Coupon	27%	28%	0.8%
Time Spent at Top 100 Retail (min)	38.17	40.38	5.5%
Cyber Monday
to Top 100 Retail	7,676,918	7,690,510	0.2%
to Dept. Stores	4,798,623	5,596,172	14.3%
to Coupon Sites	2,889,894	3,030,100	4.6%
% Top 100 - Coupon	47%	62%	23.1%
% Dept. Stores - Coupon	45%	53%	14.2%
	22.2%
Time Spent at Top 100 Retail (min)			10.5%
Source: Compete, December 2008

To view the complete comScore release, please visit here.