by Andrew Redfern @ 5th December 2008 1:22 pm

comScore (Nasdaq: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today reported its tracking of holiday season retail e-commerce spending for the first 31 days of the November - December 2008 holiday season.

For the holiday season-to-date, $12.03 billion has been spent online, marking a 2 percent decline versus the corresponding days last year.

However, Cyber Monday saw $846 million in online spending, up 15 percent. The four-day period from Black Friday through Cyber Monday saw e-commerce spending jump 13 percent as both weekend days and Monday all achieved double-digit gains.

2008 Holiday Season To Date vs. Corresponding Days* in 2007
Holiday Season to Date          2007            2008             Change
November 1 - December 1         $12,217         $12,025           -2%
Pre-Thanksgiving                $10,035          $9,588           -4%
Thanksgiving and Later           $2,182          $2,437           12%
November 27 (Thanksgiving Day)     $272            $288            6%
November 28 (”Black Friday”)       $531            $534            1%
November 29-30 (Weekend)           $645            $769           19%
December 1 (”Cyber Monday”)        $733            $846           15%

“Mark Twain might have said: ‘Rumors of the death of online holiday shopping have been greatly exaggerated,’” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. “Consumers are clearly responding positively to retailers’ aggressive online discounts.

With Cyber Monday promotions beginning in earnest over the Thanksgiving weekend, consumers have finally begun to open their wallets, setting off a streak of four consecutive days of extremely strong growth, and culminating in a Cyber Monday that racked up an impressive $846 million in online spending, up 15 percent over last year and ranking it as the second heaviest online spending day on record.

This is an extremely encouraging development for retailers and we can but hope that their aggressive discounting has still left room for profits.”

Consumers Seeing Less Foot Traffic in Retail Stores

The most recent comScore holiday retail survey, conducted from November 28 - December 1, revealed that some additional insights into consumers’ views of the 2008 holiday shopping season.

Some of the key survey findings include:

** More than half (51 percent) of consumers indicated that the level of promotions and discounts is higher this year than last year, while only 12 percent said that there appeared to be fewer, suggesting that retailers are having to be more aggressive in discounting to spur consumer spending.

** 39 percent of consumers said that there seemed to be fewer people out shopping in retail stores this year than last year, while only 7 percent thought there were more.

Would you like to know about Internet Marketing? If so, contact Hit Search, Search Engine Optimisation and Pay Per Click & Social Space Marketing specialists, on 0845 643 9289. Remember, its a big world out there, make sure you become visible.

Other Related Stories That May Be Of Interest:

1. Online retail spending 33 percent against last year
2. Holiday Season Online Spending Outpacing Forecast
3. Online spenders on Cyber Monday convert at 6%
4. Online holiday retail spending up 18%
5. Online spending up 19% on last year
6. Black Friday spending up 22% on last year
7. $859 Million E-Commerce Spend on December 15
8. LinkShare Drives Retail Sales Up 17% on Black Friday and 21% on Cyber Monday
9. $14 billion online spent this holiday season
10. comScore: E-Commerce spending 18% up on last year

Terms | SEO | PPC | Contacting Hit Search | Online Reputation Management | Online Press Distribution