Online shoppers boost US holiday sales
Online shopping reached a record this week as US retailers cut prices as much as 60 percent to lure shoppers returning to work after the Thanksgiving holiday.
ComScore Inc said sales on retailers' websites rose 21 percent to $733 million on November 26, the first Monday after Thanksgiving, as Walmart.com, Best Buy Co and Circuit City Stores Inc ran online promotions for high-definition televisions and leather jackets. Shoppers sought bargains in the face of rising gasoline prices and the worst housing slump since at least 1991.
Companies count on November and December for 20 percent of their profits, and they used lower prices to get consumers into stores and onto websites to start the US holiday shopping season.
"Retailers have figured out a way to use the online visit to drive sales both online and offline," said Larry Freed, chief executive officer of ForeSee Results, an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based online research firm.
John Mahoney, chief financial officer at Framingham, Massachusetts-based Staples Inc, said store traffic on the Friday after Thanksgiving was "tremendous".
Even as 38 percent more shoppers visited websites, the average customer purchase declined 12 percent, ComScore said.
Discounts at Staples, the biggest US office supplies chain, and clothing retailer American Eagle lifted sales, though they hurt profits in the third quarter, the companies said.
Bloomberg News
(China Daily 11/29/2007 page16)
