ComScore released online spending data by category for the online holiday shopping season, which showed that trends in online spending outperformed offline in several key product categories. The study compared ComScore ecommerce data to overall (online and offline) consumer spending data published by MasterCard Advisors' SpendingPulse Unit for the period of Nov. 1 - Dec. 24 vs. year ago.
"For an online holiday shopping season that recorded a disappointing 3-percent decline in sales, a positive note is that ecommerce trends outperformed overall consumer spending in several product categories, which is to say that ecommerce continued to capture an increasing share of consumers' wallet," said ComScore chairman Gian Fulgoni.
Online sales of Apparel & Accessories were up 4 percent compared to a 19-21 percent decline in overall sales of the category. Jewelry & Watches declined 24 percent online, compared to a 34 percent decline in overall sales of Luxury Goods (including Jewelry & Watches).
According to ComScore, the top growing online product category for the season was Sport & Fitness, which grew 18 percent versus a year ago. The category continues to benefit from consumers' focus on health and fitness and consumers feeling more comfortable purchasing higher-priced fitness equipment, such as treadmills and elliptical machines, online. The second fastest-growing category was Video Games, Consoles & Accessories, which grew 14 percent on continued demand for popular consoles, such as the Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Apparel & Accessories, the only other product category with positive online growth, generated higher sales as a result of retailers' aggressive discounting and promotions, and helped by unfavorable weather across much of the country.
SpendingPulse is an information service provided by MasterCard Advisors, a subsidiary of MasterCard Worldwide. A macro-economic indicator, SpendingPulse reports on national retail and service sales and is based on aggregate sales activity in the MasterCard payments network, coupled with estimates for all other payment forms, including cash and check.
