An Online Sales Boom That May Not Last

In a rare bright spot for the retail industry, e-commerce sites had a strong holiday weekend, with online sales from Friday through Monday up 13 percent compared with last year, according to data released Wednesday by comScore.

The Monday after Thanksgiving was the second-heaviest online spending day on record, comScore said, behind only Dec. 10, 2007. Online sales climbed to $846 million, up 15 percent from the previous year.

"It was higher than I would have anticipated, but I'm not entirely surprised, just because the level of discounting was so aggressive," said Andrew Lipsman, a senior industry analyst at comScore, which tracks a variety of Internet data.

Still, strong Web sales are unlikely to bail out the retail industry, which is contending with a recession and a sharp decline in consumers' wealth. E-commerce now accounts for only 7 percent of overall sales, according to Shop.org, the e-commerce arm of the National Retail Federation. And online sales were down 2 percent for the season so far -- the first decline since the Web became a significant retail channel.

The Monday after Thanksgiving -- which Shop.org calls Cyber Monday -- has been a bellwether for online holiday sales. Sales growth on that day has historically fallen within two percentage points of total online sales growth for the season.

This year will be a different story, Mr. Lipsman said. ComScore has predicted that sales will be flat this season, and the firm is not changing its forecast as a result of sales Monday.

"There was evidently some pent-up demand," said Scott Silverman, executive director of Shop.org. "The consumer could have said, 'I'm going to do most of my shopping this day,' and we could see a drop-off for the rest of the season."

The online sales growth over the weekend mirrored offline sales, which the National Retail Federation said increased 18 percent over last year. Many retailers will give precise figures Thursday in their November sales reports.

Online, the virtual big-box stores, which had some of the steepest discounts, got the most visits. On Monday, eBay, Amazon, Wal-Mart, Target and Best Buy were the top e-commerce sites, Nielsen Online said.

At PayPal, which is used to process almost all eBay sales, the number of transactions Monday was up 27 percent from the year before, said Jim Griffith, whom eBay calls its marketplace expert. To lure shoppers, the auction site is promoting $1 holiday "doorbusters."

The most popular product sold on eBay Monday was the Nintendo Wii game console -- 3,017 were sold for an average price of $349. The Wii Fit, an add-on device for the console, was also popular, with 1,305 units sold for an average $143.

Amazon.com had strong sales of consumer electronics and toys, said Sally Fouts, a spokeswoman for the company. Deals included a Logitech universal remote control, marked down to $137.28 from $249.99, and a Canon digital camera, down to $159.94 from $299.99.

Beauty products accounted for a surprisingly large slice of sales Monday, said Sucharita Mulpuru, an e-commerce analyst at the research firm Forrester. "Cosmetics are doing really well this year, because it's those affordable luxuries," she said.

Average order values have been smaller this year, Ms. Mulpuru said: "It may not be a sweater, but it's a scarf."

One reason that shoppers finally filled their online shopping carts might be that there are five fewer shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year than last. "People have to spend a certain amount of money during Christmas," Ms. Mulpuru said, "and that money was not spent in November, which means it has to be spent in December. source>>>

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