Online holiday sales growth seen up again: comScore

SAN FRANCISCO, USA: Online spendingthis holiday is now expected to rise by 11 per cent over last year,comScore said on Tuesday, marking the second time the analytics firmhas raised its closely watched view.

The increased bullishness overe-commerce sales comes as retailers both on and offline ready for thekey Thanksgiving weekend when holiday shoppers head to stores or totheir computers in search of deals.

The new spending outlook should bringtotal holiday e-commerce spending to $32.4 billion, comScore said.

Cyber Monday, the day when consumershead back to work after the Thanksgiving weekend, is considered thekick-off to the online shopping season. But brick-and-mortarretailers from Wal-Mart Stores Inc to Staples Inc are focused onearly deals at their online units, while Internet giant Amazon.comhas already gained market share this season, analysts say.

One week ago, comScore told Reuters inan exclusive interview that it was raising its forecast from anearlier projected gain of 7 per cent to a new projection of 9 percent. It noted then that the outlook might be raised further.

The new outlook announced Tuesday isbased on the first 21 days of the November and December season, inwhich $9.01 billion has already been spent, marking a 13 per centincrease over the year-ago period, comScore said.

ComScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni said theholiday e-commerce season had "gotten off to an extremelypositive start."

"Despite continued highunemployment rates and other economic concerns, consumers seem to bemore willing to open up their wallets this holiday season than last,"Fulgoni said in a statement.

He attributed the surge of purchases todeep discounts that started earlier than in 2009, when U.S.e-commerce sales rose 4 per cent during the two-month holiday period.

Online sales make up approximately 7per cent of the overall retail pie, according to comScore, andbrick-and-mortar retailers are expecting a far less rosy salesoutlook this year.

The National Retail Federation expects2010 holiday retail sales -- which exclude online as well as food,vehicle and gasoline sales -- to rise a mere 2.3 per cent this yearto $447.1 billion.