US online sales during this year's full holiday season fell 3 per cent, according to comScore, marking the first year-over-year decline since the Internet research company began tracking e-commerce in 2001.
US consumers spent $25.5 billion online between 1 November and 23 December, compared with $26.3 billion during the comparable period last year, which was 27 October through 18 December, according to comScore. 23 December was the last day to purchase with the possibility of delivery by Christmas Eve, the company said.
The results fell short of comScore's prediction before the season, which had called for flat sales.
Although there were some hopeful moments for online retailers, such as a year-over-year sales increase of 15 per cent for the Monday after the US Thanksgiving holiday, the weak economy slowed consumers down, according to comScore.
There also were five fewer shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the company noted.
The bad news went beyond just the holiday season. The fourth quarter as a whole will mark the first quarter since 2001 with lower online sales than a year earlier. Sales for 1 October through 28 December were about $36.8 billion, down 4 per cent from $38.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2007, the company said.
But shoppers visited online stores more often during the holidays, with total unique visitors to all stores, between 1 December and 24 December, rising 5 per cent to just under 180 million.
The top e-commerce site in visits remained eBay, with 85.4 million unique visitors, but it suffered a 4 per cent drop from a year earlier, comScore said.
The sites operated by Amazon came in second, with more than 76 million, an increase of about 7 per cent.
Wal-Mart trailed in third place, with 51.5 million, but it gained 4 per cent from the previous year.
The biggest winners in drawing shoppers were computer makers: Hewlett-Packard gained 28 per cent, and Apple, the fifth most popular online store overall, saw unique visitors grow 19 per cent.
But the ailing Dell had 17 per cent fewer visitors during the holidays this year.
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