What Do Online Sales Look Like This Year?
Black Friday saw more shoppers out, but each consumer spent less per person than they did last year.
Cyber Monday — a nonsense term coined by the spin doctors over at the National Retail Federation in 2005 — was quite similar. No, it isn’t the largest online shopping day of the year, it merely is the first non weekend day following Black Friday.
The broad build out of retailers on the internet is still in its first decade; Amazon.com
In terms of traffic and sales, the online retail world this year looks similar to the mall traffic — more shoppers spending less money:
“The total number of online shoppers increased 6% on Nov. 30 from a year earlier, even as the amount that each shopper spent declined 2% to $102.19. “Consumers are still obviously cash-strapped,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni, yet “every year there are more people that take to e-commerce.”
Some outfits prjected mcug stronger sales, based upon questionable methodlogies. I sure as hell don’t buy this data from Coremetrics:
“Cyber Monday 2009′s online sales rose 14% this year from Cyber Monday 2008. Coremetrics uses a different methodology from comScore’s, tracking actions on sites for about 500 brands.”
The surge in online shopping hasn’t lifted all sites equally. Experian PLC’s Hitwise says that traffic to the top 500 retail Web sites was down 9% Nov. 30 compared with last year’s Cyber Monday, as shoppers shifted their browsing to larger retailers. Traffic at the most visited site, Amazon.com Inc., increased 44%, and visits to Staples.com increased 61%.
Apple saw a huge surge (71% ?!?), Amazon was the top site, Best Buy, Wal-Mart also saw big gains, but on enormous loss-leading price cuts. The price war between Amazon and Wal-Mart also drew shoppers to those sites.
Want a surefire way to misrepresent what total online sales looked like? Only measure the 500 biggest name brands.
Congratulations to Coremetrics for a methodology that manages to create a highly misleading picture of the overall economy!
Online Retail Sales (NSA)
click for bigger chart
>
Source:
‘Cyber Monday’ Sales Appear Strong
GEOFFREY A. FOWLER
WSJ, DECEMBER 1, 2009
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703300504574567883001657224.html
See also:
E-commerce sales grew 5% on Cyber Monday
De.li.cious
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December 3rd, 2009 at 9:22 am
Cyber Monday (the Monday after the Thanksgiving weekend) sees plenty of deals on consumer electronics and DVD Blu-ray Disc, including free shipping.
Best Buy touted 40 Blu-ray titles online from $6.99, including Hellraiser, Children of the Corn, Henry Poole Is Here, Underworld and Sleepwalking. The discounts represent savings of nearly 13% from previously announced Black Friday (Nov. 27) specials.
Best Buy is holding sales on Blu-ray players from Sony, Panasonic, LG (each $129.99) and Samsung ($149.99), as well as higher-end players from Samsung and LG from $229-279. TV deals range from a 720p 19-inch Proscan TV for $159.99 through 22-inch 720p TVs from Toshiba ($279.99) and Samsung ($336.99) up to a 1080p Panasonic Viera 64-inch Plasma TV for $2,499.99. Free shipping is offered on all sales $25 and up.
Best Buy also is offering other sales on Blu-ray (X-Men Origins: Wolverine for $9.99, The Terminator for $7.99, Heathers for $14.99) and DVD (Entourage: The Complete Fifth Season for $9.99, Aliens in the Attic for $9.99, Paul Blart: Mall Cop for $6.99 and Casino Royale for $3.99).
WalMart.com has offered a 720p Sony Bravia 32-inch LCD HDTV (KDL-32L504) for $398, the 1080p Sony Bravia 46-inch 1080p LCD (KDL-46S504) for $848, the 1080p Sony Bravia 40-inch LCD (KDL-40S504) for $658, the 1080p Sceptre 46-inch LCD (X46BV) for $698, the 720p Samsung 22-inch LCD (LN22B350) for $248, the 1080p RCA 52-inch LCD (L52FHD38) for $998, a Magnavox upconverting DVD player for $29, the Curtis 19-inch LCD/DVD Combo (LCDVD194A) for $198, the 720p Sceptre 37-inch LCD (X370BV-HD) for $428.00, the 720p Panasonic 32-inch Viera LCD (TC-L32X1) for $398 and the 1080p Panasonic 42-inch Viera Plasma HDTV (TC-P42S1) for $898. Wal-Mart also offers a PlayStation 3 bundle (with PS3 games Batman: Arkham Asylum and InFamous as well as The Dark Knight Blu-ray Disc and a Sony Blu-ray remote) for $369.
Target.com offers free shipping when customers spend $50 on more than 125,000 select items, including free shipping on all Vizio TVs. Deals include a 1080p 47-inch Philips HDTV (47PFL6704D/F7) for $999.99, advertised as lower than Amazon’s price, as well as a 1080p 32-inch Vizio HDTV for $399.
CircuitCity.com has such deals as a 720p Vizio LCD (VA26L) for $279.99; and TV/Blu-ray player bundles from Toshiba (46-inch TV, $1,099.98), Samsung (52-inch TV, $1,319.98) and Sony (52-inch, with PS3, $1,469.98).
Costco.com offers free shipping on select Xbox 360 titles as well as LCD TVs from Hannspree (28-inch, 1080p, $299.99) and Proscan (40-inch, 1080p, $499.99).
Overstock.com is holding a “25 Days, 25 Deals” promotion from Dec. 1 through Dec. 25 in which a new deal will be posted to the site every day for that time period. On Cyber Monday the site began discounting items such as Star Trek on DVD for $8.99.
December 3rd, 2009 at 9:23 am
“Want a surefire way to misrepresent what total online sales looked like? Only measure the 500 biggest name brands.”
BR, why do I get the feeling you’ve enjoyed the book “How to Lie with Statistics”?
December 3rd, 2009 at 9:29 am
Want a surefire way to misrepresent what total online sales looked like? Only measure the 500 biggest name brands.
So, you are saying it’s the Dow Jones of online retail?
December 3rd, 2009 at 9:39 am
OT
This is one for your links later BR, great piece, somehow surreal.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/dec/03/dubai-world-economic-crash
December 3rd, 2009 at 9:50 am
Barry, watch the shipping charges this year. Anecdotally I’m hearing that Amazon (no offense, I know you’re affiliated) has a lot of exclusions from free shipping so some people are going back to schlepping to the stores old-school this year.
December 3rd, 2009 at 10:19 am
Could kick myself for never buying Amazon stock. Always “too expensive”. But they are the best of the class.
December 3rd, 2009 at 10:33 am
Holidays Start Slowly at Retailers; Deeper Price Cuts Loom
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704107104574573590580802858.html
Many retailers are likely to start offering broader discounts and promotions before the end of the holiday shopping season in response to generally lackluster sales the stores reported for November, retailing experts said Thursday.
Overall, sales at stores open at least a year edged up less than 1% last month compared with a year earlier, according to data collected by Retail Metrics Inc., which catalogs sales at 30 retail chains. Wall Street analysts had been expecting a 2.2% increase.
Shoppers stayed home for most of November, before venturing out during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend to buy sharply discounted electronics and apparel, executives and analysts said.
Since discounts appear to be attracting shoppers, retailers are expected to continue and broaden them—though no one expects a return to the extremes of last year’s inventory markdowns.
Once again, discounters such as TJX Cos., owner of the T.J. Maxx and Marshall chains, fared relatively well, as did moderately priced department store Kohl’s Corp. and midlevel-luxury emporium Nordstrom Inc. But other department stores and many specialty apparel chains took a big sales hit.
December 3rd, 2009 at 10:45 am
Frankly, I do most of my shopping at Amazon these days. The problem is that B+M retailers have don’t have the items I want in stock. They’ve been so focused on inventory reduction, but this could backfire spectacularly for them. What if people get so used to the B+M retailers having tight inventory that they just don’t bother anymore? At least Amazon can instantly tell me whether they have the inventory or not.
December 3rd, 2009 at 10:54 am
As far as shopping off and online goes:
Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded – YOGI BERRA
I’d like to see some new jobs created before worrying about sales.
December 3rd, 2009 at 10:59 am
[...] Investors should pay close attention to regulatory issues which could crimp margins and cause store closings in some US regions. The industry has come under the regulatory microscope at times because of unfair business practices. It would behoove the company – and other players in the industry – to adopt a set of universally accepted standards by which the company treats customers (most of whom desperately need financing and will agree to difficult long-term arrangements in order to meet short-term needs). Collection practices should be carefully monitored and fall within Federal guidelines, and fees and interest arrangements should be fair and equitable. Other Articles of Interest First Cash Financial Reports Strong Earnings Black Friday Indeed 24/7WallSt: Amazon – Cramer and Others Get Too Bullish The Big Picture: What do Online Sales Look Like? [...]
December 3rd, 2009 at 11:40 am
I went to get a phone system the other day;
found one three stores later but they only had the decks, not the phones.
The sales guy told me to order them myself online as it could take them up to 5 days to do it.
The moron was standing next to a computer.
Go figure.
December 3rd, 2009 at 12:10 pm
it seems to me that a lot of consumers are running to online to avoid paying sales taxes. out here
in CA, the state has been on the local news channels reminding consumers they still owe the taxes
under the use tax provision. given the state of almost all municipality finances, i really wonder
how long online retailers can avoid not collecting sales taxes.
December 3rd, 2009 at 12:25 pm
>> Congratulations to Coremetrics for a methodology that manages to create a highly misleading picture of the overall economy!
Once again, Winston Munn’s “short honesty, long obfuscation” investment strategy is paying off *major* dividends! ;-)
December 3rd, 2009 at 3:20 pm
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December 4th, 2009 at 1:03 am
[...] The Big Picture shows charts that answer the question “What do Online Sales Look Like this Year?” [...]