Online Shopping Sets Records

Consumers clicked their way to a record in online shopping this holiday season, researchers say. Online spending by consumers hit $1.9 billion last week, up 19 percent from the week before Christmas a year ago, according to researchers at ComScore Networks.

Home, Garden Favorites

Apparently, many in the United States will be opening home-and-garden gifts over the holiday. That nontravel category was the fastest growing, rising 78 percent in dollar sales over a year ago. It reached $555 million in sales for the period from November 1 until December 20, said ComScore, which is based in Reston, Virginia.

Furniture and appliances were next in growth, up 75 percent from that same period a year ago to hit sales of $171 million this year.

Of course, toys also were a big seller online. Toy purchases totaled $396 million in sales, up 61 percent from the same period in 2001, keeping the category in ComScore's rankings of the fastest-growing types of online sales.

Sports and fitness gear ranked fourth in overall growth, jumping 54 percent to total $233 million worth of sales. Rounding out the top five was the jewelry and watch category at $216 million, up 45 percent over last year's online sales for the same period.

Tech Sales Waver

Among the fastest-growing categories, apparel and accessories was the largest overall seller in dollar terms at $1.4 billion, 31 percent higher than the year-ago period. Consumer electronics also topped the $1 billion mark--though barely--for growth of 21 percent.

Reflecting the technology industry overall, however, computer hardware online holiday sales sagged 1 percent. Still, at $1.63 billion technology products remained the biggest category for dollar sales among the largest major nontravel categories tracked by ComScore. Hardware was followed by apparel and accessories, and then by consumer electronics.

Cumulative online sales for November 1 through December 20 were $12.6 billion, an increase of 29 percent from the year-ago period, with nontravel sales up 23 percent to $8.5 billion and travel sales up 51 percent to $4.1 billion, ComScore found.