Online Spending Clears the 100 Billion Dollar Hurdle
Online spending increased by 24% in 2006, topping 100 billion for the first time. For the last two months of the year, from November 1st to December 31st, spending increased by 26% over 2005, bringing in 24.6 billion dollars!
Without the need to visit brick-and-mortar shops in person, online shoppers spread their spending over a longer period. The Monday after Thanksgiving is traditionally one of the heaviest shopping days of the year for U.S. retailers, but in 2006 it was just another day. The $607.6 million spent on “Cyber Monday,” November 27, was surpassed on 11 other days before the end of the year.
By delaying their shopping until the last days before winter holidays, shoppers showed their growing trust in online retailers’ ability to ship goods through the mail quickly, the report said. The top three days of online spending for the year were December 13 ($666.9 million), December 11 ($660.8 million), and December 4 ($647.5 million). Source: Yahoo
These totals include numbers from all sectors but travel. I imagine their will be some big affiliate checks being cashed this month and next. It will be interesting to see the numbers Google puts up, during the year and those last two months.
