Search Engine Optimization News Blog

The holiday season has started turning better for the online Ecommerce community. Some time ago, relatively lesser online spending worried those who have been fearing how the current credit crunch was going to affect their holiday selling. Fueling their fears, the holiday shoppers were hesitant to shell out their dollars as the holiday season started. However, as per the ComScore reports, the figures are turning out to be better since the Thanksgiving. It has matched last year’s figures and this has eased the tension among the online business people. It is not only good news to the online businesspersons; it is equally good news to those who prefer to do their shopping in the regular brick and mortar shops. Because the shopping trends online also is a reflection of the general shopping trends of the mass.

As per ComScore reports the first thirty-five days of the holiday season starting from November up to December 5 has seen $14.92 billion. The highest spending was seen in the last first five days of December. The total sales in those five days reached $3.74 billion and this was much higher than the last year figures if just the first five days of December is taken into consideration. For December 1, the figures reached $846 million and for December 2, the figures were $823 million.

According to Gian Fulgoni, the chairman of ComScore, the holiday shopping has gained new momentum with Thanksgiving. The holiday spirit was seen online with the increasing discounts online at the online retailer stores. He feels that the online sales will continue to grow stronger as this year the time after Thanksgiving is 5 days shorter than last year.

The top selling categories during the period between Dec 1 and Dec 5 helps us gain new insights in the consumer trends. Items on sports and fitness reached up to 35 % of the total online sales, it is followed by electronics items at 24%. Heavy discounts were provided by retailers for electronic goods and this could have been one of the reasons for this category to be on the top three in the list. Apparels and Accessories are third in the list at 16%. Flowers and Gifts has gone to negative scales and it has gone done by 8% when compared to last year and jewelry and watches sales have gone down by 22%.

Among the online stores, eBay received the highest visitor traffic for the period between Dec 1 to Dec 5. Amazon followed eBay. When compared to last year, percentage wise eBay has lost 2% while Amazon has gained by 10% on its visitor traffic.

If you have not started your holiday shopping then it is time to make use of the heavy retail discounts that are being offered by the online stores. As the shopping trends to grow stronger, online stores may tone down a bit on the discounts to make for the lost profit.