US Online Sales Jump 23% In Run Up To Christmas
US online retail spend jumped 23% year on year in the month running up to Christmas, ringing up $7.9 billion in sales, according to the latest data from BizRate.
There were six fewer shopping days in the 2002 holiday season as compared to the year before and when the figures are adjusted to include the lost six days (that is, the period from 19 November-25 December), sales grew by 42.8% to $9.2 billion.
“As online satisfaction continues to improve, consumers did more last minute shopping online this year. Spending on the last weekend (December 21-22 2002) before Christmas Day was $297.6 million – up by 92% compared to the same weekend (December 22-23 2001) last year,” says BizRate.
The figures also show that women were responsible for the majority of online purchases for the third consecutive year, increasing their share of buying to 60% from last holiday’s 56%. In 1998, women accounted for only 39% of all online holiday transactions.
