Reston, Va. – The
CE and PC categories led an 11 percent surge in online sales during the fourth
quarter for a total e-commerce take of $43.4 billion.
According to
online research firm ComScore, the growth rate represented the fifth
consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year increases for e-tail and the second
quarter of double-digit gains in 2010.
“Retail e-commerce
had a strong fourth quarter … as holiday season spending was bolstered by an
improving sentiment among some consumer segments and by retailers’ discounting
and promotions,” said ComScore chairman Gian Fulgoni.
“The 2010 holiday
season saw the first billion-dollar day on record and several more surpassing
$900 million to help propel Q4 to record spending levels. We anticipate that
the progress we’ve seen in the past year as we climbed out of the recession
will continue with sustained double-digit growth rates in 2011.”
Top-performing categories
included computer software (excluding PC games), CE, and computers/peripherals/PDAs,
each of which grew at least 15 percent year over year.
ComScore said the
top 25 e-tailers accounted for 68.4 percent of all dollars spent online during
the fourth quarter, up 5.6 percentage points from the prior year, and that 84
percent of U.S. Internet users conducted an online transaction during the
holiday period, up from 78 percent in 2009. The average buyer spent about the
same amount online during the quarter as they did during the prior-year period.
ComScore will
present a full analysis of fourth-quarter e-tail performance in a live webinar this
Thursday, Feb. 17, at 2:00 p.m. ET. Visit
www1.gotomeeting.com/register/768913889
to register.
