E-commerce reached $20.65 billion in spending for the first 48 days of the 2006 holiday season, traffic moves from e-commerce sites to shipping carrier sites as holiday nears and consumers fret about on-time delivery.
Online spending reached $666.9 million on December 12, the highest-earning day of the 2006 holiday season. Data released by comScore Networks tracked money spent during key days in December.
The first 48 days of the holiday season, November 1 through December 18, amounted to $20.65 billion spent online. That’s a 25 percent increase over the first 48 days in 2005. Over $600 million was spent during each of 12 days in the period. The highest-spending day was Wednesday, December 13, when consumers spent $666.9 million on e-commerce sites. The highest-spending day in 2005 was Monday, December 12 at $556 million.
| Top 12 Days of 2006 Holiday E-Commerce Shopping, November 1 to December 18 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Rank | Date | E-Commerce Spending (Millions) |
| 1 | Wednesday, December 13 | $666.9 |
| 2 | Monday, December 11 | $660.8 |
| 3 | Monday, December 4 | $647.5 |
| 4 | Friday, December 8 | $638.2 |
| 5 | Thursday, December 14 | $634.4 |
| 6 | Wednesday, December 6 | $630.06 |
| 7 | Thursday, December 7 | $629.4 |
| 8 | Friday, December 15 | $623.9 |
| 9 | Tuesday, December 12 | $619.8 |
| 10 | Tuesday, December 5 | $612.3 |
| 11 | Tuesday, November 28 | $608.2 |
| 12 | Monday, November 27 – “Cyber Monday” | $607.6 |
| Note: Ranked by dollars spent, non-travel retail spending, excludes auctions and large corporate purchases | ||
| Source: comScore Networks |
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Online retail sales for the year were up roughly 25 percent over last year. Between January and October, e-commerce sites rung up $77.5 billion in sales, up 24 percent from 2005. November and December are forecast to reach $24.6 billion (forecast revised on December 20), a 25 percent increase over sales in the same time period a year ago.
comScore releases data collected from its opt-in user panel.
Whether gifts are purchased online or off-, many consumers find it necessary to ship packages to friends and family. During the week ending December 16, the Hitwise registered a 15 percent increase over the previous week. The market share of visits to the freight and storage category went up by 23 percent on December 19 when compared to the previous Tuesday.
| Top 5 sites in Business and Finance: Freight and Storage, Week ending Dec. 16, 2006 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Name | Domain | Market Share (%) |
| 1 | UPS Global | www.ups.com | 31.87 |
| 2 | United States Postal Service | www.usps.com | 21.80 |
| 3 | FedEx | www.fedex.com | 14.91 |
| 4 | DHL Track | track.dhl-usa.com | 2.80 |
| 5 | USPS – postage rate calculator | postcalc.usps.gov | 2.52 |
| Source: Hitwise, December 2006 |
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UPS Global gained 31.87 percent market share. Market share for the U.S. Postal Service went up 21.80 percent, and FedEx’s market share increased by 14.91 percent.
Hitwise measures traffic of more than 25 million users by recording data at the IP level. It also has an additional data from an opt-in panel.
