Holiday sales: E-commerce up 15% so far

'Austerity fatigue' seen as factor in spending

Written by Tanya Mannes
6:30 a.m., Dec. 8, 2011

Consumers have spent nearly $20 billion online so far this holiday season, up 15 percent from last year, driven in part by by the deep discounts offered on Cyber Monday, according to this week's report from comScore.

Meanwhile, brick-and-mortar stores had a banner Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) but then saw revenues flatten the first week of December.

The big question now is where - and how much - consumers will spend at Christmas approaches.

The comScore numbers are similar to those provided by IBM Benchmark, which said online sales for the entire month of November were up 15.6 percent over those last year, and sales for Nov. 27 through Dec. 3 were up 10.7 percent.

In the next few weeks, some online retailers may pull back on discounts as they attempt to restore their profit margins, which could temporarily reduce e-commerce sales, said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. He projects that sales will spike again toward the middle of December with several more billion-dollar online spending days.

El Cajon resident Vic Salazar, who runs the coupon-code website CyberMondayDC.com, said that there are still plenty of deals available from retailers such as Walmart, Overstock.com, Target, Sears, Kmart and QVC.

"I think the retailers have recognized that people are getting accustomed to shopping online and they’re really trying hard to make it worth their while," Salazar said. "We update the website when we get new codes and discounts from the retailers, 365 days a year."

Why sales are up

Some Americans might be experiencing "austerity fatigue,â€