comScore reported that online sales in the second quarter of 2008 totaled $31 billion, up 14% from $27.2 billion a year ago. Sales were up 15% in April over April 2007; 12% in May over May 2007; and 11% in June over June 2007.  Online sales may be slowing, but are growing at 5 times the rate of retail sales.

Honestly, this is no surprise.  With folks freaking out about the economy, it’s not unexpected that sales have turned online.  The cost in savings in gas alone makes sense, and while there is still the concern of shipping rates increasing, online venues are becoming more savvy with their shipping offers.  Amazon’s Prime Membership is one such case.  Many thought that with the first round of economic stimulus checks mailed out in early May, we would have seen a boost in spending in general. But no such luck, comScore also revealed that recent research found that a full two-thirds of consumers said they had no intention or plans to spend their stimulus checks, but would rather use the cash to pay off debt or put the money into savings.

Some stats below provided by comScore (year-over-year growth rates by category):
Video Games, Consoles & Accessories, 73%
Furniture, Appliances & Equipment, 65%
Home & Garden, 23%
Event Tickets, 22%
Sport & Fitness, 21%
Consumer Electronics (excluding PC Peripherals), 5%
Apparel & Accessories, 13%
Flowers, Greetings & Gifts, -10%
Jewelry & Watches, -10%
Computers, Peripherals & PDAs, -11%
Toys & Hobbies, -11%
Music, Movies & Videos, -20%

For a few more details and stats, read this article.

While others are cutting marketing budgets, this is a great time to boost your Internet Advertising and take advantage of the shoppers online.

Tags: internet advertising, online sales

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 5th, 2008 at 6:17 pm and is filed under General Web News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.