Internet sales by US retailers rose at the slowest pace on record as consumers grappled with US$3-a-gallon (3.8 liters) gasoline and the worst housing slump in 16 years.
Online spending from Nov. 1 through Dec. 27 increased 19 percent to almost US$28 billion from US$24 billion a year earlier, ComScore Inc said yesterday in a statement. Sales growth trailed last year's by 26 percent.
Shoppers withheld spending until after Christmas, seeking deeper discounts by Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world's largest retailer, and Best Buy Co, the biggest US consumer electronics chain. Online sales the day after Christmas totaled US$545 million, more than double the revenue on the same day in 2006, ComScore said.
"Consumers went shopping for price," Kurt Barnard, president of Barnard's Retail Forecasting in Nutley, New Jersey, said yesterday in an interview. "They looked at the price tag before they looked at the product."
ComScore hasn't recorded online sales growth of less than 20 percent since it began reporting the figures in 2002. Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Circuit City Stores Inc offered discounts of 50 percent or more and promoted savings for in-store pickup of products purchased online to attract shoppers.
After-Christmas spending showed that consumers "were willing, and able, to take advantage of late-season promotions and price discounts," ComScore chairman Gian Fulgoni said in the statement.
Spending through Web sites, which makes up more than 3 percent of all retail sales, may climb to US$29.5 billion in November and last month, ComScore estimated. That's less than the 26 percent growth in online sales during the holidays in 2006.
Shoppers had an extra day this holiday season. There were 32 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas compared with 31 days a year earlier, ComScore said.
The slower growth mirrors the patterns in traditional retail sales. Last year's holiday shopping season's sales may increase at the slowest pace in five years as consumers tightened household budgets because of record high oil prices and declines in home values. Spending in November and last month may rise 4 percent this year, according to National Retail Federation estimates.
Sales of new homes in the US fell to a 12-year low in November, weaker than the lowest forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of economists.
The Friday report by the Commerce Department reinforces the deepest US housing recession in 16 years. The slump may worsen as discounts fail to lure buyers and mounting foreclosures swell the glut of unsold properties, economists said.
People can preregister to receive their NT$10,000 (US$325) cash distributed from the central government on Nov. 5 after President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday signed the Special Budget for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience, the Executive Yuan told a news conference last night. The special budget, passed by the Legislative Yuan on Friday last week with a cash handout budget of NT$236 billion, was officially submitted to the Executive Yuan and the Presidential Office yesterday afternoon. People can register through the official Web site at https://10000.gov.tw to have the funds deposited into their bank accounts, withdraw the funds at automated teller
PEACE AND STABILITY: Maintaining the cross-strait ‘status quo’ has long been the government’s position, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan is committed to maintaining the cross-strait “status quo” and seeks no escalation of tensions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday, rebutting a Time magazine opinion piece that described President William Lai (賴清德) as a “reckless leader.” The article, titled “The US Must Beware of Taiwan’s Reckless Leader,” was written by Lyle Goldstein, director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based Defense Priorities think tank. Goldstein wrote that Taiwan is “the world’s most dangerous flashpoint” amid ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He said that the situation in the Taiwan Strait has become less stable
CONCESSION: A Shin Kong official said that the firm was ‘willing to contribute’ to the nation, as the move would enable Nvidia Crop to build its headquarters in Taiwan Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽) yesterday said it would relinquish land-use rights, or known as surface rights, for two plots in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投), paving the way for Nvidia Corp to expand its office footprint in Taiwan. The insurer said it made the decision “in the interest of the nation’s greater good” and would not seek compensation from taxpayers for potential future losses, calling the move a gesture to resolve a months-long impasse among the insurer, the Taipei City Government and the US chip giant. “The decision was made on the condition that the Taipei City Government reimburses the related
FRESH LOOK: A committee would gather expert and public input on the themes and visual motifs that would appear on the notes, the central bank governor said The central bank has launched a comprehensive redesign of New Taiwan dollar banknotes to enhance anti-counterfeiting measures, improve accessibility and align the bills with global sustainability standards, Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) told a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee yesterday. The overhaul would affect all five denominations — NT$100, NT$200, NT$500, NT$1,000 and NT$2,000 notes — but not coins, Yang said. It would be the first major update to the banknotes in 24 years, as the current series, introduced in 2001, has remained in circulation amid rapid advances in printing technology and security standards. “Updating the notes is essential to safeguard the integrity
RSS