|
RAPAPORT... Ecommerce retail sales rose 13 percent year on year to $47.49 billion for the third quarter that ended on September 30, according to comScore Inc. In addition, retail spending from smartphones and tablets, which comScore defined as m-commerce, added $5.8 billion for the quarter, up 26 percent year-on-year, for a total digital commerce spending total of $53.2 billion in the period.
Online product categories that performed best in the third quarter, all of which improved at least 14 percent from one year ago, included the jewelry and watch category as well as digital content and subscriptions, apparel and accessories, consumer packaged goods and consumer electronics. Ecommerce accounted for 9.4 percent of consumers’ discretionary spending in the quarter, the highest share on record, according to comScore.
“Third-quarter ecommerce spending grew 13 percent from a year ago, and although that marks a pretty healthy growth rate, it also represents a slight deceleration from the prior quarter,” said comScore's chairman, Gian Fulgoni.
“Other macroeconomic indicators also suggested relative softness in discretionary spending, which offers some cause for concern as we head into the Christmas season. Although there was evidence of slightly diminished consumer confidence in the third quarter, a more optimistic take is that increased outlays on large purchases such as new homes and automobiles may have temporarily squeezed other discretionary consumer spending. That said, the trend could still spell a challenging holiday season for retailers this year -– particularly given the highly compressed calendar between Thanksgiving and Christmas, which contains six fewer shopping days than last year and is the shortest shopping season since 2002. Nonetheless, we are confident that the growth rate in online spending will once again far exceed that in brick-and-mortar stores, reflecting the ongoing channel shift to ecommerce,” he added.
|