cyber monday sales 2007

RESTON, Va., Nov. 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- comScore, Inc. , a leader in measuring the digital world, today released an update of holiday season e-commerce spending covering the first 23 days (November 1 - 23) of the November - December 2007 holiday season. More than $9.3 billion has been spent online during the season-to-date, marking a 17- percent gain versus the corresponding days last year. Online retail spending was strong on both Thanksgiving Day (up 29 percent to $272 million) and "Black Friday" (up 22 percent to $531 million), outpacing the season-to-date growth rate.

2007 Holiday Season To Date vs. Corresponding Days* in 2006
Non-Travel (Retail) Spending
Excludes Auctions and Large Corporate Purchases
Total U.S. - Home/Work/University Locations
Source: comScore, Inc.
Billions ($)
Holiday Season to Date 2006 2007 Pct Change
November 1 - 23 $7.98 $9.36 17%
Thanksgiving Day $0.21 $0.27 29%
"Black Friday" (November 23) $0.43 $0.53 22%

* Corresponding Shopping Days, Not Calendar Days

"The Friday after Thanksgiving is known for heavy spending in retail stores, but it's clear that consumers are increasingly turning to the Internet to make their holiday purchases," said comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni. "Online spending on Black Friday has historically represented an early indicator of how the rest of the season will shake out. That the 22-percent growth rate versus last year is outpacing the overall growth rate for the first three weeks of the season should be seen as a sign of positive momentum. Online retailers will also certainly be paying close attention to what happens on Cyber Monday, which will provide an even clearer indication of what lies ahead for the rest of the season. Based on the growth rates we've seen so far this season and historical consumer behavior patterns, we would expect Cyber Monday sales be even stronger than Black Friday's and to exceed $700 million. While this would make it the heaviest online shopping day on record, we can expect
to see even stronger days ahead as the 2007 shopping season progresses into December."

Hot Categories in Online Holiday Retail

The hottest category continues to be video games, consoles & accessories, which is up 134 percent versus the corresponding days last year. Sales of Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3, and popular game Halo 3 continue to drive growth in the category. The furniture, appliances & equipment category (up 36 percent) is joined by consumer electronics (up 21 percent) and sport & fitness as the retail categories demonstrating above average growth. Apparel & accessories is now growing in line with the overall trend in online retail following a soft start to the season when warm weather dampened winter apparel sales. Online sales of toys are up just 9 percent for the season-to-date, with toy safety concerns appearing to be weighing down the category
Just like Black Friday was a huge traffic day for brick-and-mortar retailers, online retailers are poised to log record-breaking sales Monday when hordes of shoppers go searching for sales on what has become known as Cyber Monday.

According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), 72 million consumers plan to shop online from home or at work on one of the biggest online shopping days of the year. That's up from 61 million shoppers last year.

By mid-morning, online traffic trends already indicated a sharp spike in the North America region, according to Web traffic monitor Akamai.

According to Akamai's Net Usage Index for retail - which monitors aggregate Web traffic to over 300 global Web sites, including etoys.com, Overstock.com, jcpenney.com, Bestbuy.com and Circuitcity.com - total North American traffic by visitors per minute on Cyber Monday was up more than 80 percent so far compared to normal traffic trends for a Monday, according to Donovan.

As of 11 a.m. ET, the sites tracked were drawing nearly 3.9 million visitors per minute, up 18 percent from last year's Cyber Monday traffic during the same time.

This year, more than 72 percent of online retailers are offering special Cyber Monday bargains and free shipping incentives, up sharply from about 43 percent last year, the trade group said.

Beat the mobs on 'Cyber Monday'
With plenty of online discounts to bag this year, online sellers are projected to have a record-breaking sales day Monday.

ComScore Networks estimates that Cyber Monday sales will surpass $700 million, to make it the heaviest online spending day on record.

"Online retailers will certainly be paying close attention to what happens on Cyber Monday, which will provide an even clearer indication of what lies ahead for the rest of the season," ComScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni said in a statement.

"While [the $700 million in sales] would make it the heaviest online shopping day on record, we can expect to see even stronger days ahead as the 2007 shopping season progresses into December," he said.

The most sought-after deals Monday are on video games such as the Halo 3 and gaming systems like Nintendo's Wii and Sony's (Charts) PlayStation 3. Industry experts said price-conscious shoppers this year will also surf the Internet for sales on furniture, home appliances, electronics and clothing.

Special Report: Holiday Money 2007
However, ComScore said this year's recalls of millions of toys for lead-paint hazards and faulty design will dent online toy sales, which is typically one of the hottest holiday categories.

But it was a toy that knocked Nintendo's Wii from the No. 1 spot this past weekend as the most-searched item on Yahoo! (Charts, Fortune 500) Shopping, said Fiona Waslander, the site's director of shopping.

Wii surrendered its top spot to the Transformers Bumblebee toy, she said. "This was quite a surprise because Wii was in the top slot for most of November," Waslander added.

Wii was the second most-searched item, followed by Apple's (Charts, Fortune 500) iPhone, a Sharp Aquos 46-inch Plasma TV and the Nintendo Onyx DS Lite, which rounded out the top 5 hottest searches on Yahoo! Shopping heading into Cyber Monday, Waslander said.

Wal-Mart (Charts, Fortune 500), the world's biggest retailer, marked Cyber Monday by unveiling a 5-day sales blitz available exclusively for shoppers on its Web site.

From Monday through Friday, the retailer has set discounts on a variety of electronics, toys, videogames, home furnishings and clothes.

The deals included a Samsung 40-inch LCD HDTV ($1,198), HP 7 mp digital camera, printer and 1 GB card ($188), a flip video 60-Minute camcorder, tripod and case ($149) and a TomTom one portable GPS bundle ($162).

Additionally, Walmart.com said its special Cyber Monday sale is the Microsoft (Charts, Fortune 500) Xbox 360 premium holiday value bundle, which includes the Xbox 360 console, an extra controller, three games and a messenger bag for less than $400.

Scott Savitz, chief executive of shoes and accessories seller Shoebuy.com, told CNNMoney.com that he expects more than 200,000 visitors to the Web site on Monday.

Savitz said his company's biggest sales day typically occurs during the second week of December.

"We've had a robust start to the holiday season. Our Thanksgiving weekend traffic was up 75 percent over last year," Savitz said.

In addition to special Cyber Monday deals, Savitz said the company
While retail experts expect a surge of online shopping today, industry watchers appear divided over whether "Cyber Monday"--the online counterpart to Black Friday--will exceed last year's sales as consumers begin their online shopping earlier than ever.

The term was coined by retail group Shop.org in 2005 after online retailers noticed a trend of increased shopping online the Monday after Thanksgiving. Since then, retailers have viewed it as the unofficial start of the online shopping season, with special promotions tied to that day.

Some analysts expect online sales today to surpass 2006 levels. comScore Media Metrix, for instance, projects Cyber Monday sales of $700 million, easily outpacing the total of $608 million on the year-earlier day.

And despite the spread of high-speed broadband connections in homes, Shop.org says many Americans still like to shop at work. This year, according to a BigSearch survey commissioned by Shop.org, 54.5% of office workers with Internet access--or 68.5 million people--will shop at work today, up significantly from the 50.7 percent in 2006 and the 44.7% in 2005.

A bump in e-mail marketing activity could also herald a manic Cyber Monday. A week ago, 49 percent of major online retailers sent out at least one promotional e-mail--up from 29 percent last year, according to RetailEmail.Blogspot, a blog tracking the e-mail marketing campaigns of more than 100 top Web retailers.

"There's a very clear indication from retailers' e-mail marketing activities that they're going to be making a very hard push this Cyber Monday," says Chad White, founder of the RetailEmail blog and director of retail insights for the E-mail Experience Council, an arm of the Direct Marketing Association. "I think sales will be significantly higher this year than last year."

White believes that the heavy promotion for Black Friday sales or special deals early last week will carry over into Cyber Monday. "Retailers love occasions to have sales or promotions," he says, with Cyber Monday being among the latest.

Not everyone views Cyber Monday as a growing tradition for online retailers, however. "What we've seen is that Thanksgiving is getting bigger because stores are closed and people are at home," says Heather Dougherty, director of research at online measurement firm Hitwise. "Now lots of retailers are embracing this idea that people are turning to Web shopping on Thanksgiving so they're having special sales and promotions to help drive traffic on Thursday."

With a bigger marketing push earlier in the holiday season, the emphasis on Cyber Monday as D-Day for online shopping may be waning. Forecasts for declining economic conditions during the fourth quarter and into 2008 may also dampen online spending today and during the holiday season.

Wal-Mart, Macy's and JCPenney have already warned that housing and credit woes, as well as high gas prices, may hurt holiday sales.

Even so, a study conducted by BizRate Research and commissioned by Shop.org found that 72.2 percent of online retailers planned a special promotion for Cyber Monday--up from 47.2 percent two years ago. Whether they'll translate into strong sales will be clear in the coming days.