This week is shaping up to be the most lucrative week for online retailers so far this holiday season. While the jury’s still out on the success of brick-and-mortar retailers, online holiday sales are forecast to increase 20 percent over last year.
Online shopping “reaches a crescendo” this week, said Andrew Lipsman, a senior analyst with comScore Inc., which monitors online sales and traffic. Dec. 6 had been the highest day on record with $803 million in online sales, he said, but some days this week will top that.
“The reason this week is like to be the heaviest is because people tend to procrastinate a bit and wait until later to get attractive price cuts,” Lipsman said. Many retailers guarantee delivery for Christmas until Dec. 17 or 18. Some cutoff dates may be later, but people’s perceptions of time play a big part. Online retailers have offered many incentives this year, including free shipping and ordering multiple items at a better price, said Sieglinde Friedman, vice president of strategy with Arlington-based Electronic Retailing Association.
Online product comparison sites have also seen increased traffic this year. Shopping.com saw a 54 percent increase in traffic directed to merchants on this past Monday compared with the second Monday in December 2006, according to General Manager Alisa Weiner. So far, from Nov. 1 through the end of last week, online sales reached almost $19 billion, about 18 percent above 2006 levels, according to comScore. ComScore predicts the 2007 holiday season will see about $29.5 billion in total online sales.
