NRF: Fewer Online Retailers Expect Sales Increase This Holiday Season
by Christina Lee on November 14th, 2008
Though the Internet will remain a popular destination for shoppers this holiday season, fewer retailers expect their sales to increase significantly, according to a recent survey.
The National Retail Federation found that the number of consumers shopping online – 44.2 percent – has remained almost flat since last year. In the meantime however, compared to 77.5 percent of retailers last year, only 56.1 percent of them expect holiday sales to increase by at least 15 percent.
In addition, the Internet will continue to influence an increasing number of holiday purchases – at least 33.6 percent this year, compared to 30.2 percent last year. But most consumers use it to research potential retail purchases, looking up store locations, gift ideas, and prices, according to the National Retail Federation.
To draw this year’s cost-conscious shoppers, most retailers – at least 78 percent – will offer free shipping with conditions at some point during the holiday season, despite rising transportation costs. More than 40 percent of them plan to compensate costs by renegotiating with shipping providers.
The D.C. trade group and Shopzilla released its study less than a week after comScore, an Internet research group, reported for the third fiscal quarter a mere 6 percent growth in online retail sales.
I really like this. Adding to bookmarks.
J. Goetz
February 9th, 2009
at 7:15 pm