Biggest year for online spend
As consumers increasingly head online to buy gifts in the run-up to Christmas, spend on e-commerce in the first 37 days of the November to December period is up 13% year on year to USD26.6bn (strategy eye reports). According to comScore, this year is the biggest for online spend on record, with seven individual days already eclipsing the USD1bn spend barrier, including three in the last week. Although the growth rate for online spend actually slowed a little in the week beginning December 3, comScore is now predicting that there could be USD5bn days this week, another new record.
“Despite posting three consecutive billion-dollar spending days and five in excess of USD950m, this past week saw a noticeable softening in e-commerce momentum as growth rates dipped into single-digits after beginning the season in the mid-teens,” says comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. “However, we expect this lull to be a temporary effect. This upcoming week is likely to be the heaviest online spending week in history with a realistic chance of delivering USD5bn days.”
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