Holiday E-commerce Spending Decreased By 3% During Holiday Season In 2008

For a few years, holiday ecommerce sales have been in a growth mode, but the trend changed in 2008 holiday season. According to comScore Report, holiday ecommerce spending went down by 3% in 2008 compared to 2007. In 2008 holiday shopping season, 9th December is the top online spending day with $887 million in sales. EBay is top traffic gainer in this holiday season despite decrease in unique visitors by 4% from last year.

3% decrease in total holiday e-commerce spending in 2008
For the 2008 holiday shopping season, online spending was $25.54 billion from November1st to December 23rd, decreased by 3% compared to last year’s $26.33 million. Many retailers expected an increase in e-commerce spending in holiday season but the situation was worse than expected. Spending is expected to increase but consumer did not spend as expected due to financial crisis, a tough time for both online and offline retailers.

2% decrease in ecommerce spending from November 1st to December 1st
Ecommerce spending for first 31 days of holiday season is $12.03 billion, 2% decline compared to last year’s $12.21 billion. On cyber Monday, online spending increased from $733 million to $846 million, an overall increase of 15% compared to last year. Online spending on Thanksgiving Day increased from $272 million in 2007 to $288 million in 2008.

December 9th is the top online spending day in 2008
For online holiday shopping season, top 10 spending days are evaluated every year. In 2008, December 9th is considered as top ecommerce spending day with $887 millions. Second biggest ecommerce spending day is December 15, with spending of $859 millions. With ecommerce spending of $734 millions, December 3 stood at tenth position for ecommerce.

eBay continued as top traffic gainer despite drop in unique viewers by 4%
Despite economic crisis, consumers in holiday season continued to shop online for the best deals. Traffic to retail sites increased in December by 5% over the same period in last year. eBay remained as top traffic gainer with 85.4 millions of unique visitors, despite 4% compared to last year. Amazon.com is in second position with 7% increase in number of unique visitors.

Website traffic increased for retail sites in this holiday season, but it is not converted into increase in sales. Online businesses are competing with each other to get the customer attention. However, they could not manage to get higher profits due to decline in ecommerce spending for this holiday season.