Holiday season online spending in the U.S. got off to an early and strong start, spurred by rising consumer confidence and retailer promotions ahead of the traditional big shopping days, comScore Inc said on Wednesday.
From November 1 through November 18, $10.1 billion U.S. was spent online, a 16% increase versus the corresponding days last year, comScore reported. So far, November 8 has been the heaviest online spending day of the season so far at $829 million U.S., it added.
E-commerce accounts for 5-10% of total consumer spending in the United States. However, it is growing much faster than bricks-and-mortar retail as shoppers are lured by low prices, convenience, faster shipping and wide selection.
ComScore expects online retail spending to rise 17% to $43.4 billion U.S. this holiday season. That is above the 15% increase last season and ahead of the retail industry's expectation for a 4.1% increase in overall spending this holiday.
Black Friday, the day following Thanksgiving, has traditionally been the busiest shopping day in the United States. However, some big retailers have been trying to grab market share by running holiday promotions earlier.
This year, Amazon.com Inc, the world's largest Internet retailer, launched its Black Friday deals on November 19, five days before Black Friday.
ChannelAdvisor, which helps merchants sell via eBay, Amazon.com and other websites, reported that client same-store sales on Amazon jumped 41.5% during the first 19 days of November, versus the same period a year earlier.
Client sales on eBay rose 24.5% in the same period, ChannelAdvisor also said.
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