by Robin Fiedler
Online shopping continues its positive gains while brick-and-mortar retail sales had a modest gain in week 6 of the holiday shopping season, ending Dec. 13. Many consumers are completing holiday shopping later this year. Is it Hanukah? Is it waiting for better deals? Is it because we're paying cash? Maybe all three. 
According to comScore, Dec. 7 though Dec. 13 online shopping totalled $4.7 billion, a 4% increase over last year, and online sales reached almost 21 billion dollars for the holiday shopping season so far. "This most recent week began with five consecutive strong online spending days surpassing $700 million, followed by a fairly upbeat weekend," said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. Cyber Monday 2009 retains the highest one-day online sales record, at $887 million.
Coremetrics, which also tracks online shopping, predicts flat online sales for the rest of the shopping season because most big-ticket items have already been purchased during Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. After a 6% increase for the first 2 weeks of December in online sales over last year, Coremetrics reports the average amount spent per online purchase was down 6.7 percent, while the average number of items purchased increased 2%. At this point, online consumers are buying more items but spending less money.
I know for myself after buying 14 items of kids' clothing for $60, many of the large online retailers' daily deals or apparel clearance items are offered at incredibly cheap prices. Search engines that glean for items under $25 or sort items from lowest to highest price allow cyber shoppers to easily find the best prices, unlike needle-in-the-haystack brick-and-mortar shopping. Target, Kmart, and Sears all boast clearance sales on clothing, although sizes and colors are limited to available inventory, with many items for under $10 and some even under $5 for kids' shirts, shorts, pants, and skirts.
In the concrete world, retail sales ending Dec. 12 increased 18% from the week before, a good sign that we are shopping later in the season, perhaps because the deals and sales are too irresistible to pass up. "ShopperTrak's National Retail Sales EstimateTM (NRSE) today reported that year-over-year GAFO retail sales rose 1.1 percent for the week ending December 12 while sales increased a strong 18.2 percent versus the previous week ending December 5." ShopperTrak attributes part of the surge to Hanukah gift-buying.
Chain stores had a lower sales increase of 0.4% over the week before, but a higher 2.4% increase over last year, according to International Council of Shopping Centers. More interestingly, "according to the ICSC-Goldman Sachs consumer holiday shopping survey, the average percentage of shopping completed during the second week of December rose to 56.9%--which, for the third consecutive week, remained about 6 percentage points lower than the same week of 2008." What that means is many of us are shopping later than last year.
In other words, we're not finished shopping yet, but the Northeast's winter storm just may force shoppers to complete their holiday shopping online.
Sources
"December 2009 Online Sales Exceed 2008 Levels Reports Coremetrics." Coremetrics. 16 Dec. 2009.
"Recent Week of Online Holiday Shopping Boasts Record $4.7 Billion in Spending as November-December Total Approaches $21 Billion." comScore. 15 Dec. 2009.
"Weekly Sales Pickup, But Consumers' Holiday-Gift Buying Completion Rate Still Lags." International Council of Shopping Centers.
"Year-Over-Year Retail Sales Rise 1.1 Percent for Week Ending December 12; Weekly Sales Increase 18.2 Percent." ShopperTrak. 15 Dec. 2009.
COUPON TIME
Last-minute shoppers don't have to miss out on the best deals! Check out our Christmas Sale page and see all the savings add up!
One Response to “Consumers Complete Shopping Later This Season”
It's interesting that people are buying more items online this Christmas yet somehow managing to spend less money. I don't know whether it is to do with the recession. I wasn't really affected by the recession, but surprisingly I still spent less on Christmas presents this year than I did last year.