Print

Mail

wiki links

Internet making strides in retail

The Internet is making strong strides in retailing and is expected to take a growing slice of sales from the key US holiday shopping season, analysts say.

More consumers are comfortable shopping online for a wider variety of goods and spending more, analysts say, projecting seasonal online sales of US$12.2 billion to US$16.8 billion.

This is a growing fraction of the US$217.4 billion that the National Retail Federation estimates will be spent in total this holiday season.

Some 39 million American households were planning to shop online, five million more than last year, according to Forrester Research.

"People are feeling more and more comfortable to buy online almost everything," said Diego Piacentini, Amazon.com senior vice president of worldwide retail marketing, noting that sporting goods, gourmet foods and jewelry are showing growth.

A survey by Goldman Sachs, Harris Interactive and Nielsen NetRatings suggested that consumers began holiday shopping earlier this season, spending US$8.5 billion, excluding travel, in November. That represents a 55 percent jump over the same period last year.

"We are very enthusiastic about the significant increase in online spending this holiday season," said Lori Iventosch-James, director of e-commerce research at Harris Interactive. "The increase in spending suggests that more consumers are now shopping online and consumers appear to be spending more online, as well."

The report found that among the most popular items bought online were videos and DVDs, books, music, toys and video games. It found online shoppers spent US$758 million online on videos and DVDs in November, a 133 percent increase over last year.

An American Express survey found 54 percent of American consumers planned to use the Internet to compare prices, browse, purchase or send electronic cards, up from 46 percent last year and 42 percent in 2001.

In addition, the survey found 31 percent buying gifts on the Internet, up from 18 percent last year.

"The Internet has clearly moved into the mainstream, even while the mall and individual stand-alone stores continue to attract the overwhelming majority of holiday shoppers," said John Theiss at American Express.

But while the final numbers may not be in yet, much of the online shopping has already taken place, according to American Express, which noted that some popular Internet retailers require orders to be placed as early as December 4 to guarantee Christmas delivery without additional charges.

To get their shopping done, a lot of busy consumers are letting their fingers do the walking ... from their offices.

A survey commissioned by Yahoo Shopping found one in every four employed adults were doing some of their holiday shopping at the office this year. And more than half of these said their bosses are aware of the deskside shopping excursions.

"In today's work environment, efficiency is king," said PK Van Deloo of Yahoo Shopping. "Lunchtime consistently proves to be a popular time to get personal chores done using technology. Our traffic data mirrors the survey findings -- traffic on Yahoo Shopping spikes as the lunch hour moves across the country's time zones."
This story has been viewed 2225 times.