Record holiday Web sales

If your family is like mine, it set a record for online shopping this holiday season. We purchased gifts for grandparents, nephews, brothers, spouses, and other friends and relations from e-tailers that included Amazon.com, Bose.com, llbean.com, and other less well known sites. For my sports-obsessed nephews in Virginia, I even bought a pdf that contained statistics for the entire 2008 NFL season. I received the pdf document in an email, which I forwarded to my brother (no shipping charges or trip to a crowded post office). He then printed the data on cards and assures me that he and the boys are having hours of fun doing whatever one does with all that. (Note to self: Send brother a new printer cartridge next year.) How’s that for hands-off shopping? And to think buying a present for a child used to involve a trip to a toy store!

Indeed, sales at e-commerce retailers were up more than 15% this year, as online merchants stole market share from bricks-and-mortar shops. (No doubt the pre-Christmas blizzard on the East Coast helped to boost online sales.) Overall, between November 1 and December 20 online sales totaled more than $25 billion, according to ComScore. Amazon, which pioneered online shopping, was a major beneficiary. Its great success selling books, and now everything else under the sun, has attracted plenty of imitators, most notably Wal-Mart.com. The online arm of the world’s largest retailer went head-to-head with Amazon this year in a price war for hardcover books (see previous post), and recently began offering merchandise from other retailers in a new virtual mall called Walmart Marketplace.

While Web sales set records, recession-wary shoppers pinched pennies online. Just as they did at the mall, shoppers hunted for bargains and responded to offers for free shipping and other enticements. Colorado-based eBags, an online seller of luggage, backpacks and such, was one e-tailer that met with success by luring shoppers with steep discounts. Online shoppers also reported greater satisfaction with e-commerce sites this year over last season (read here).

All in all, the 2009 holiday shopping season is shaping up to be a respectable one for e-tailers and retailers alike. If the economy manages to make a sustained comeback in 2010, Web sales should leap to new heights.

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Photo by Kasia, used under a Creative Commons license