Oct. 22, 2008

Add to del.icio.us     Digg this

For 2008, Christmas holiday sales are expected to total about $32 billion, up approximately 10 percent from last year. This is a fairly large reduction from growth rates in the low-to-mid 20 percent range seen over the past couple of years.

Today's instability in global financial markets and the nervousness in the overall economy is placing downward pressure on online sales for this Holiday season.

That pressure accentuates the already declining sales growth, which is a sign of the inevitable maturity of the online shopping model.

Right now, the main engine of eCommerce growth is incumbent online buyers who are shifting a greater percentage of their total spending from physical stores to the World Wide Web.

Financially strapped consumers will use a variety of strategies to save money on holiday gifts.

Increasingly, they will turn to the Internet to get gift ideas, find bargains and locate online retailers that stock desired products. Shoppers will shift a larger share of their purchases from physical stores to the Web in an effort to save money on gasoline and avail themselves of retailers’ free shipping offers.

Overall, and according to a recent survey sponsored by ATG and conducted by the e-tailing group, the spending shift from physical stores to eCommerce sites is expected to continue this holiday season. For 2008, about 49 percent of holiday gift spending among U.S. Internet users will occur online, compared with just 44 percent in stores.

Those numbers make this the first time the Internet has surpassed physical stores as the preferred channel for Web users to purchase holiday gifts.

Add to del.icio.us     Digg this

Source: eMarketer.

    This article was featured on Business 5.0.

Advertise on E-Commerce News