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Internet sales in the dumps too
Not even the mighty Internet is immune from this economic downturn.
It’s easy to see that consumers are spending less when your neighborhood store closes or marks goods down to fire-sale prices. It’s less obvious on the Internet.
New numbers from comScore Inc. show that retail sales are still growing online - but at a much, much slower rate. Web sales grew by 6 percent in the last quarter and by 5 percent in September alone according to comScore. That may sound pretty good - until you compare that to the 19 percent growth in September 2007 and realize September’s growth was the lowest rate in recent memory, at least.
“Consumers’ economic pressures continue to have a significant impact on retail spending, which is evident in the slowing growth rates in the online channel,” comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni said in a statement.
Fulgoni - like most in the Web biz - said he expects growth rates at Web retailers to continue to outpace their brick-and-mortar counterparts.
He may be right. If nothing else, budget-strapped consumers are likely to rely more on the Web for bargain hunting. They may also cut back on trips to the shopping mall to save gas money.
Then again, if they can’t afford to pay their Internet bills, it may make it a bit harder to buy stuff online too.
Here are the figures from comScore:
U.S. Retail E-Commerce Growth Rates (Excludes travel, auctions, autos and large corporate purchases) Source: comScore, Inc.
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