Ecommerce: Conflicting Stories About December Sales Success

[benevolent001]

By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO, AP Business Writer
36 minutes ago

NEW YORK - An already disappointing holiday shopping season turned out to be even worse than expected for many of the nation's retailers, who Thursday reported tepid sales gains for December.

news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070104/ap_on_bi_ge/retail_sales

I think WebmasterWorld people had great sales though as per discussions we had last week: Christmas Sales [webmasterworld.com]

[edited by: engine at 6:16 pm (utc) on Jan. 4, 2007]
[edit reason] Added link to earlier thread [/edit]

[pageoneresults]

Hmmm, we have some conflicting information out there...

From Comscore...

Online sales for the 56 days through Dec. 26 jumped to $23.1 billion, Reston, Va.-based ComScore Networks Inc. said Friday. The results exceeded ComScore's own estimate of a 25 percent gain for November and December, prompting the firm to raise the projection to 26 percent.

Decking the Virtual Halls
[fool.com...]

[benevolent001]

i guess its all about whose eggs were sold and at what rate , all having different sales and so were stats

[jsinger]

i guess its all about whose eggs were sold and at what rate

And whether those eggs were at full markup or deep discount. And how much advertising was done and whether shipping costs were a profit generator or a black hole. Then there are those pesky January returns which loom large online, and... [insert another 10 complex and as yet untotalled variables for online sales]

Pretty clearly B/M didn't have a great Christmas. And a few low margin $2,000 TVs are skewing broader figures, I imagine.

[maximillianos]

Funny this story comes out... I was just talking to my wife about how odd I thought it was to see the malls not too busy this year in the days before xmas.

We were driving by the main mall in our town the Saturday before xmas and it was about 11am (prime shopping time for last minute folks) and there was empty lots all around the mall.

Very strange... perhaps online is taking more of a market share!?

[jsinger]

Mostly true but don't confuse mall traffic with mall sales.

Studies show an incredible drop in time American FAMILIES spend in malls. Something like 30%. No one is spending all day Saturday in a mall as they did 15-30 years ago.

Tweens still hang around malls on weekends, but adults tend to go to a mall, make a quick purchase, and leave...fast!

I think we're now seeing a bit of that online. Surfing down, but actual purchases up.

[ashear]

This article seems to be focused on offline shopping.

[akmac]

For luxury goods, both our online and B&M sales were stronger than last year. Not sure whose sales were tepid, but ours were anything but. ESP online.

[trinorthlighting]

It does not mention online retailers.

Also, hot items of the season were the following

1. Elmo TMX
2. Sony Playstation 3
3. Large Screen TV's

A lot of people paid over list price for elmo and the playstation 3.
Large Screen TV's are in the thousands.

So I imagine that clothing retailers did take the brunt of it.

[ScottG13]

Up 63% over last Dec. We're pleased.