US retailers'online sales slow as free delivery offer ends

Online holiday sales at retailers such as Amazon.com Inc and Barnes & Noble.com Inc may peak this week as shoppers seek to take advantage of limited offers of free shipping for Christmas gifts.

"I'll try to get most of my Internet shopping done before the free shipping ends," said Barbara Hamill, a retired social worker in East Pointe, Michigan.

``Anything you can get money off, I'll do," she said.

Yesterday was the last day to avoid delivery charges on some purchases from Barnes & Noble.com. Sears, Roebuck & Co. is taking standard shipping orders until Dec. 17 on its Web site for delivery by Christmas.

Amazon.com, the world's largest Internet retailer, has set today as the deadline on some purchases eligible for shipping and delivery by Dec. 24.

Internet sales probably jumped 20 percent to US$2.3 billion in the week ended Saturday, according to BizRate.com Inc, which tracks transactions at more than 3,000 online merchants. The same period a year earlier was the busiest week of last year. More than 90 percent of the holiday orders will be placed by this week.

"The bulk of online shopping will be done by mid-week," said Chuck Davis, chief executive of closely held BizRate.com.

"This is a great season. We don't know of any industry that's growing" at as fast a rate, he said.

Holiday shopping on the Internet began earlier this year than in the past few years, according to estimates including Forrester Research Inc. More people have access to the Internet at home, and broadband technology has made it easier and faster to shop.

Retailers also have learned how to fulfill orders more accurately and in time.

Snow and rain in the northeast probably prompted some people to stay home again to do their shopping on Web sites last weekend. Sales at Internet retailers rose 27 percent to US$2.02 billion in the previous week as snowstorms forced some malls to close early, according to ComScore Networks Inc, a Reston, Virginia-based Web research company.

Sales at Amazon.com are forecast to climb 31 percent to US$1.87 billion in the fourth quarter, while sales at EBay Inc are projected to jump 45 percent to US$602 million, according to analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.

Industrywide online sales will jump as much as 40 percent in the November-to-December holiday period from a year earlier, according to Forrester.

The projected surge in Internet sales this holiday season compares with an expected gain of 5.7 percent for overall retail sales, as projected by the National Retail Federation. Online sales this year are expected to rise 24 percent to US$55.5 billion, from US$44.94 billion last year, according to BizRate.com.

Internet sales have risen an estimated 21 percent from a year earlier to reach US$5.39 billion between the Monday before Thanksgiving and Dec. 11, according to BizRate.com data.