comScore Talks Up U.S. Holiday Spending Outlook

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comScore Talks Up U.S. Holiday Spending Outlook [reuters.com]

ComScore Inc said on Tuesday it expects U.S. holiday e-commerce spending to rise 3 percent and the analytics firm cited a positive start to the online holiday shopping season. Total online spending for the two-month holiday period beginning in November should reach $28.8 billion, versus $28.0 billion in 2008, the company said. In the 2008 holiday season, online spending fell 3 percent.

For the first 22 days of the November-December holiday spending season, U.S. consumers spent $8.21 billion online, up 2 percent from $8.03 billion over the year-ago period.

ComScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni said in a statement that the holiday shopping season had "gotten off to a positive start."

[dpd1]

So far I've been about the same as last year. This period certainly gets hyped more and more each year though, that's for sure. I just heard that people already started camping out at a nearby BestBuy Tuesday night. I see that they have two LCDs that are priced at about half... which is probably what most of the people are after. But still... Kind of nuts.