Online Holiday Shopping Sales Increase Sharply in 2004
The latest holiday online sales forecast numbers are up and running with predicitions all having online sales rise, anywhere from 19% to almost 30% over results from 2003. comScore Networks predicts that online consumer spending for November and December will total between $15.1 billion and $15.5 billion, a percentage increase of between 23 and 26% from 2003. eMarketer reports that these figures do not include online travel or online auctions, and are notable because comScore is publishing projections as well as historical findings based on panel data.
JupiterResearch predicts that online holiday shopping sales will total $21.6 billion in November and December of 2004, up 19% from $18.5 billion in 2003. The numbers not only reflect an increase in online shopping, but may also be due to the increase of Internet usuage among women, which has taken a major effect on the popularity of online shopping.
eMarketer’s newest online holiday shopping numbers peg sales for November and December of 2004 at $16.71 billion, an increase of 29.3% from 2003. Jeffrey Grau, eMarketer Senior Analyst and author of the Holiday Shopping report, comments that “with consumers planning to shift more of their gift spending from offline to online stores, this should be another strong online holiday shopping season.” eMarketer benchmarks its e-commerce projections on the US Department of Commerce’s data for online shopping, which does not include online travel or online auctions.
