Online shopping: $33.8 billion and counting
BY SANDRA GUY Business Reporter/sguy@suntimes.com December 17, 2012 10:48PM
An Amazon.com warehouse
Updated: January 19, 2013 6:17AM
Holiday shoppers are clicking online at a 13 percent higher rate than a year ago for the first 44 days of the shopping season, according to analysis firm ComScore.
The amount spent online stands at $33.8 billion, the firm reported Monday.
Four days last week each passed the $1 billion spending threshold, led by so-called “Green Monday” on Dec. 10, when retailers trumpeted free shipping and deep discounts. This year’s second Monday in December, a growing online blockbuster sales day, ranked third best among holiday sales at $1.275 billion, lagging the largest-ever online spending day of the season on “CyberMonday,” Nov. 26, at $1.465 billion, and Dec. 4 at $1.362 billion, according to ComScore.
So far this holiday season, 11 days have surged past the $1 billion mark, surpassing last year’s record of 10 such days, said ComScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni.
Online retailers were counting on Monday, dubbed “Free Shipping Day,” to bring in one final banner day as shoppers scurry to order gifts in time for Christmas delivery, Fulgoni said.
For the entire season, the National Retail Federation forecasts a 12 percent increase in online shopping, to $96 billion. The numbers are helped by the calendar, since this is the longest shopping season in four years and includes two extra shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
A separate report released Monday by Mastercard SpendingPulse predicts that the final 10 days before Christmas have the potential to account for nearly 24 percent of the season’s overall retail sales, primarily because of a slowdown in spending in some parts of the country after Hurricane Sandy.
