Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Amazon Gains as Holiday Sales Stall

Amazon.com was among the top online retail web sites for December, posting a 7 percent gain in unique visitors and taking second place in the latest numbers from comScore. According to comScore, Amazon.com had 76.24M unique visitors in December, for the period including December 1st through December 24th, putting it second in traffic just after eBay. Amazon beat out Wal-Mart, Target, Apple, and many others in unique visitors for the period, and was one of the few sites showing a big gain in Internet visits. Overall, holiday shopping on e-commerce sites declined by 3 percent, comScore reported, for the holiday season beginning November 1st and ending December 23rd. Spending totaled $25.5 billion, down 3 percent versus 2007. The results were the first decrease for holiday seasons since 2001, when comScore began gathering e-commerce statistics. The numbers bolster Amazon's revelation last Friday that it had its "best ever" holiday season this year.