It is clear that e-commerce sales growth has begun to race ahead of bricks-and-mortar revenue growth this holiday season.
Comscore reports that Cyber Monday was “The Heaviest Online Spending Day In History”. Broadband internet was not widely adopted until 10 years ago, which makes the measured period less than impressive.
Analysts have be concerned about traditional stores sales. They are up by 6% by most estimates, but experts believe that the amount of discounting being done will undo profits. The same concern should hold true for online stores, even with their rapid growth rates. E-commerce sites often offer free shipping which is a substantial cost to the companies. And, it is assumed that Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) cuts prices to compete with Walmart.com, and that Walmart (NYSE: WMT) does the same to compete with Amazon.
Comscore’s data on Cyber Monday showed that
For the holiday season-to-date, $15 billion has been spent online, marking a 15-percent increase versus the corresponding days last year. Cyber Monday reached $1.25 billion in online spending, up 22 percent versus year ago, representing the heaviest online spending day in history and the second day on record to surpass the billion-dollar threshold.
The season is defined as the entire months of November and December.
E-Commerce sales have surged. Profits may be another matter.
Douglas A. McIntyre
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