Online retail sales in the US increased by 7.8% to $11.06 billion in Q3, according to new data from the Department of Commerce’s Census Bureau.
The total, which excludes travel purchases, has been surpassed just once, in the final quarter of 2001, and sales were up 34.3% year-on-year. E-commerce transactions in the three months to September accounted for 1.3% of all retail sales, up from 1.1% in the same period last year.
Online shopping is expected to be a popular activity this Christmas and eMarketer has predicted that sales in Q4 will amount to almost $13 billion (see Online Sales To Rise In The Fall, Says eMarketer).
