Industry News

ComScore: Sport & Fitness Leads Online Growth

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 8 January, 2009 : - - Although overall online sales tracked by comScore Inc. fell 3% this past holiday season, sales of sports & fitness jumped 18%. The web-tracking firm said the gains were led by "consumers’ focus on health and fitness and their growing confidence in buying high-priced treadmills, elliptical equipment and other items online."

Supporting the strength in higher-priced fitness items was the finding that households with annual incomes above $100,000 increased spending by 7% during the period. That compares with a decline of 8% among households with incomes of $50,000-$99,999 and 13% for those with incomes under $50,000, comScore said.

Among the 14 categories tracked by comScore, only two others showed gains: video games/consoles & accessories, up 14%; and apparel/accessories, ahead 4%.

The video game category benefited from the popularity of new game consoles, and apparel was helped by aggressive discounting by retailers and severe weather across much of the country

“For an online holiday shopping season that recorded a disappointing 3-percent decline in sales, a positive note is that e-commerce trends outperformed overall consumer spending in several product categories, which is to say that e-commerce continued to capture an increasing share of consumers’ wallet,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni.

“Clearly, 2008 was an extremely challenging time for many retailers, and the beginning of 2009 may not be much better. But when the consumer economy eventually does rebound, e-commerce is poised to benefit from its emergence as an important consumer sales channel.”

Here are the 14 retail categories comScore tracks with the year-over-year online sales growth or decline for the period Dec. 1-24, 2008, vs. Nov. 26-Dec. 19, 2007:

Sport & Fitness, 18%
Video Games, Consoles & Accessories, 14%
Apparel & Accessories, 4%
Books & Magazines, -1%
Consumer Electronics, -5%
Flowers, Greetings & Gifts, -7%
Toys, -7%
Computer Hardware, -8%
Home, Garden & Furniture, -14%
Event Tickets, -18%
Jewelry & Watches, -24%
Computer Software (excluding PC games), -24%
Office Supplies, -30%
Music, Movies & Videos, -32%

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