Online Holiday Spending Expected to Reach Record $15 Billion

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 12, 2004 - 7:24am.

San Bruno, Calif. -- This holiday season is expected to be a boon for online retailers, according to a new forecast from comScore, a provider of Internet audience measurement services. The firm said that spending on non-travel goods at U.S. web sites should exceed $15 billion during the November through December holiday season. If the numbers hold true, that would represent growth of 23%-26% over a year ago. comScore also predicts total quarterly non-travel spending to cross the $20 billion threshold for the first time ever in the quarter. "We believe consumers' growing familiarity and confidence with online shopping, coupled with a dramatic increase in broadband penetration and continuing efforts by retailers to simplify the shopping process across channels, will translate to substantial gains for online merchants again this year," said Dan Hess, a senior vice president at comScore Networks.
http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=515