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Some Web retailers report good sales; others see big dropsJan 02, 2009 (San Jose Mercury News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- For some online retailers the just-ended holiday shopping season was the worst since 2001. For others, it was the best. Jordan Insley, owner of Quick Ship Electronics, happily rang up his highest number of sales of returned or refurbished Nintendo Wiis, iPods and Xbox 360s ever. "It was a good end of the year," said the eBay powerseller. "It's all about having the right product. Obviously these are tough times; people are looking for something they could find at a reduced rate." Rhonda Schrader, who sells high-end designer clothing on eBay, had the opposite experience. Her sales fell 80 percent compared to last year. "We might go out of business," she said. For eBay itself, the season appeared mixed. The number of visits to its site fell 4 percent, according to Web research firm comScore, but eBay remained the leading destination for online shoppers. Meanwhile, top rival Amazon increased its traffic by 7 percent and dubbed the season "the best ever," but it didn't release actual sales figures and still lagged eBay by about 9 million visits. According to data gathered by comScore, total e-commerce sales fell 3 percent -- the first decline since it began tracking e-commerce in 2001. "The combination of having five fewer shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas and the severe economic headwinds faced by consumers has made this a really tough season for retailers, both offline and online," Gian Fulgoni, chairman of comScore, said in a statement. SpendingPulse, an information service provided by MasterCard Advisors, estimated total retail sales, both online and offline and including gasoline sales, were down between 5.5 to 8 percent for November and December compared to the same period in 2007. Excluding gas, the decline was estimated to be only 2 to 4 percent. The comScore report pointed to some potential bright spots for Silicon Valley companies. Hewlett-Packard registered a 28 percent increase in visitors to its site between Dec. 1 and Dec. 24, and Apple saw a 19 percent increase. It is still too early to know how much merchandise online visitors bought from individual Web sites. Sales figures won't be released until later this month. However, investors seemed willing to bet that the dismal holiday predicted earlier this year would perhaps not be quite as bad as expected. In a broad stock market rally, all three major indices rose about 3 percent on Friday. Apple and Amazon each rose 6 percent, doubling that gain. Apple closed at $90.75 and Amazon closed at $54.36. eBay rose 5 percent to close at $14.66 and Hewlett-Packard rose about 1 percent to close at $36.81. Contact Elise Ackerman at [email protected] or (408) 271-3774. Online winners and losers Despite soft online sales this holiday season, some Web sites saw big jumps in visitors. Both Apple and H-P well, for instance, even as Dell traffic declined. These figures show traffic between Dec. 1-24 of this year compared to the same period last year. Web site 2007 2008 % change Total Internet 171.1 180.0 5% eBay 88.9 85.4 -4% Amazon 71.0 76.2 7% Wal-Mart 49.6 51.5 4% Target 47.3 46.8 -1% Apple 29.5 35.0 19% Best Buy 28.6 28.6 0% JCPenney 21.3 18.8 -11% Toys-R-Us 19.8 18.1 -9% Sears 18.0 18.4 2% Circuit City 19.5 15.5 -21% Overstock.com 18.9 16.0 -16% American Greetings 17.3 14.7 -15% Hewlett-Packard 15.2 19.4 28% Dell 17.3 14.3 -17% Macy"s 15.7 15.9 1% Source comScore Media Metrix Mercury News To see more of the San Jose Mercury News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.mercurynews.com. Copyright (c) 2009, San Jose Mercury News, Calif. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |