After a strong first week of December, e-commerce sales have slowed down but are still on pace with last year's spending rate at this point of the holiday season, according to a report issued Sunday by ComScore.
For anyone accustomed to the drumbeat of sour economic news, that tidbit must come as a pleasant surprise. In fact, ComScore reports that 9 Dec. logged US$887 million in online spending, thus setting a record for the heaviest cyber spending day on record. They're not exactly shopping until they're dropping but online sales are keeping pace with last year--no small achievement considering the depth of the recession.
In a related development, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, speaking during an appearance on the NBC television show Meet the Press noted a trend in the search terms used by online shoppers at this time of the year.
"The--we, we've seen quite an increase in, in queries of things like discounts and bargains and things like that," he said. "And we know that shoppers are using the Internet to get--do better pricing. They're getting better value. But, but, fundamentally, they're behaving as you'd imagine."
Here is the statistical breakdown, courtesy of ComScore.
(Credit: Comscore)
This article was first published as a blog on CNET News.com.
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