2012 US online holiday spending up 14%
RESTON, US: comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, has reported the final 2012 holiday season retail e-commerce spending totals. US$42.3bn was spent online during the entire November-December holiday shopping season, marking a 14% increase from 2011.
The latter portion of the season saw several days with particularly strong growth, including Free Shipping Day on Monday, 17 December (up 76% to US$1.013bn) and Christmas Day (up 36% to 288 million), but they could not make up for the spending growth shortfall earlier in the month.
While the holiday season started off with strong growth rates on the upper end of the mid-teens through the heavy promotional period, a December swoon in consumer confidence gave way to softer than expected buying during the critical shopping weeks in early to mid-December, from which growth rates never fully recovered.