U.S. Retail Holiday Sales Up 1.8%, Online Sales +12%

Holiday shoppers Photo: Benson Kua

(IDEX Online News) - Despite a relatively softer final week, the 2010 holiday season was a clear improvement over the 2009 season, according to U.S. sales trackers. Online retailers were the clear beneficiaries of American consumers desire to keep out of crowded stores and enjoy free shipping.

U.S. retail e-commerce spending for the entire November – December 2010 holiday season reached $32.6 billion, a 12 percent increase versus 2009 and an all-time record for the season, according to comScore.

By comparison, while foot traffic registered a gain over the previous year, the increase was not as large - up 1.8 percent for the season and 4.1 percent in the week ending January 1, according to ShopperTrak’ National Retail Sales Estimate (NRSE) and based on the Department of Commerce.

The 2010 online holiday shopping season exceeded comScore’s forecasted 11 percent growth. “This year, retailers targeted many of their promotions even earlier than usual and reaped the benefits,” said comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni.

Of special note was an exceptional Cyber Monday, which was the first billion-dollar spending day in history, and the first time Cyber Monday ranked as the heaviest online spending day of the year. Fulgoni emphasized the impact of free shipping, “which was used in more than half of all e-commerce transactions this season, up significantly from last year.”

GAFO (general merchandise, apparel, furniture, sporting goods, electronics, hobby, books and other related store sales) retail sales increased 6.5 percent in the last week of the holiday, according to NRSE, and 4.0 percent for the entire season.

ShopperTrak attributes the smaller growth in retail sales during the week ending January to the blizzard along the Eastern seaboard that delivered record snow amounts and crippled retail levels on December 26 and December 27. This eliminated the strong boost retailers should have seen early last week.