Report: Online holiday sales on track
Summary
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According to Comscore, which tracks e-tailingactivity, online shoppers spent $9.6 billion so farexcluding travel and auction sales. That tally putsonline sales slightly ahead or on track to hitComscore's forecast of $10 billion to $10.25 billion.
Comscore said it expects the fourth-quarter onlinesales total to be about $10.5 billion, up 15 percentfrom a year ago--not bad considering retailing salesoverall have been anemic because of the weak economy.
The statistics jibe with anecdotalevidence coming from e-commerce companies. Lastweek, Yahoo was upbeat about growth on its shoppingarea, and smaller e-tailers such as Red Envelope alsoreported strong activity.
Online travel sales are at $4.2 billion for thefourth quarter so far, with Comscore expecting thequarter to be down about 10 percent compared with thethird quarter.
For the fourth quarter to Dec. 23, apparel andaccessories had the biggest sales jump, up 50 percentcompared with the third quarter total. Flowers andgifts, up 135 percent; toys, up 235 percent; consumerelectronics and video games, up 35 percent; and homeand garden, up 31 percent, were winners compared withthe third quarter.
Book sales were up 18 percent, but computersoftware sales fell 7 percent for the fourth quarterto Dec. 23 compared with the third quarter total.
Among other items in the Comscore report:
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