Online sales boom during '04 holidays
Brian Carroll -- Furniture Today, January 23, 2005
Reston, Va. — Online consumer retail spending for the 2004 end-of-year sales season jumped 29% from 2003's November-December total, exceeding predictions and pushing online spending in 2004 to $117 billion.
The report comes from comScore Networks, a consumer research firm that surveyed over 2 million consumers. It had predicted 23% to 26% growth.
"While it's clear that a broad range of online merchants saw a strong season, multi-channel retailers were standouts this year," said Dan Hess, senior vice president of industry analysis for comScore. "Many of the nation's leading retail brands flexed their muscle this season with strategies including faster delivery, significant site redesigns and effective cross-channel promotions."
He said home and garden, which includes furniture, experienced good growth. Flowers, gifts and greetings, apparel and accessories, and jewelry and watches also were strong.
"It confirms the continued diversification of the online shopping basket," Hess said.
The 29% uptick compares to a 2.2% year-over-year sales increase reported by brick-and-mortar furniture retailers for December, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.
Furniture chains and footwear retailers "lagged behind the pack," said the International Council of Shopping Centers.
Analysis showed that six of the top 15 retailers in the holiday season were the online stores of such companies as Home Depot, Neiman Marcus and Wal-Mart.
Online shopping picked up in the season's final two weeks, said comScore, with gains of 57% in the week ended Dec. 19 and 53% the following week.
ComScore said the late surge can be attributed to various factors, including growth in broadband connections, the popularity online of gift cards, and more forgiving shipping deadlines this past selling season compared to 2003.
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