News
Online Holiday Spending Doubles from 1999
Online holiday spending more than doubled this year from 1999 levels, as volume surged in early November and maintained peak levels, according to a study by investment banker Goldman Sachs and Web research firm PC Data.
Total Internet holiday spending touched $8.7 billion, up 108 percent from the $4.2 billion shoppers spent on the Web in 1999, said the study, which tracked spending from the first week of November to Dec. 17.
Holiday sales peaked at $1.6 billion in the week ending Dec. 17, the study added, inching up from $1.5 billion spent in the earlier week. The earlier start to online holiday shopping this year was spurred by customers anxious to have gifts delivered on time and by retailers encouraging early shopping for easier management, it says.
Kmart Corp.'s e-commerce arm, Bluelight.com, said in a separate statement that its sales in this year's holiday shopping period jumped more than 1,000 percent compared to last year's when Kmart ran the site as www.kmart.com.