by Kim S. Nash

Holiday Shopping Season Off To Strong Start Online

News
Nov 26, 20071 min
BPM Systems

Online retail sales on Black Friday rose 22 percent versus a year ago

E-commerce companies weren’t blue on Black Friday.

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Having prepared their sites and supply chains for the biggest shopping season of the year, online retailers welcomed a rush of shoppers who spent $531 million on their hearts’ desires the day after Thanksgiving. That’s up 22 percent compared to last year’s Black Friday, according to comScore, an online researcher.

So far in November, online purchasing amounts to $9.4 billion, up 17 percent from the $8 billion booked during the same period a year ago, comScore says. Video games and accessories were by far the most-bought items, followed by furniture and appliances, consumer electronics and sports gear. Unlike in years past, when IT failures wrecked the holidays for consumers and companies alike, no major outages at big e-commerce sites have been reported so far.

Perhaps the turkey roasting didn’t go well for some, however: Online shoppers spent $272 million on Thanksgiving Day itself.