Final Online Shopping Week Falls Short of Expectations as Shortened Holiday Calendar Weighs on Season-to-Date Grow Rates

Final Online Shopping Week Falls Short of Expectations as Shortened Holiday Calendar Weighs on Season-to-Date Growth Rates $42.8 Billion in Desktop Spending Through Final Weekend Before Christmas, Up 10 Percent vs. Year Ago

Holiday Season Boasts 10 Billion Spending Days, Led by Cyber Monday in the #1 Spot for 4th Consecutive Year

RESTON, VA, December 26, 2013 - comScore (NASDAQ : SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today reported holiday season U.S. retail e-commerce spending from desktop computers for the first 52 days of the November-December 2013 holiday season, showing that $42.8 billion has been spent online from desktop devices, an increase of 10 percent vs. year ago.

2013 Holiday Season To Date vs. Corresponding Shopping Days* in 2012

Non-Travel (Retail) E-Commerce Spending

Excludes Auctions and Large Corporate Purchases

Total U.S. - Home & Work Desktop Computers

Source: comScore, Inc.

Millions ($)

2012 2013 Percent Change

Holiday Season-to-Date (thru Dec. 22)* $38,912 $42,750 10%

Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 28) $633 $766 21%

Black Friday (Nov. 29) $1,042 $1,199 15%

Cyber Monday (Dec. 2) $1,465 $1,735 18%

Green Monday (Dec. 9) $1,275 $1,401 10%

*Corresponding days based on corresponding shopping days (November 2 thru December 23, 2012)

Our expectations for the online holiday shopping season anticipated that consumers would spend heavily later into the season out of necessity to make up for the highly compressed holiday shopping calendar this year, said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. Unfortunately that was not in the cards, as the final online shopping week saw considerably softer sales than anticipated, including zero billion dollar spending days - although Monday and Tuesday came close.

Added Fulgoni, Strong momentum coming out of Thanksgiving, in addition to heavy weekend buying, suggested we would meet or exceed expectations as long as momentum continued through the final week before Christmas. Unfortunately, the most recent week fell short of those expectations, and it looks like the final season growth rate will end up a few percentage points shy of what we had anticipated. In the end, I think we'll look back at this online holiday season as one where absolute dollar sales gains in consumer spending were held back by heavy retailer price discounting that occurred in an attempt to stimulate consumer demand, while at the same time, consumers weren't willing or able to increase their spending rate to fully compensate for the six-day shorter shopping period between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Top 5 Gaining Product Categories for Holiday Season-to-Date

For the holiday season-to-date, Video Game Consoles & Accessories ranked as the top-gaining product category vs. year ago, followed by Apparel & Accessories, Consumer Electronics (bolstered by smartphone sales), Computer Hardware (bolstered by tablet sales), and Home & Garden.

Top 5 Gaining Product Categories by Sales Growth for Holiday Season-to-Date

Nov. 1-Dec. 22, 2013 vs. Corresponding Days in 2012

Total U.S. - Home & Work Desktop Computers

Source: comScore, Inc.

Rank Top Gaining Product Categories

1 Video Game Consoles & Accessories

2 Apparel & Accessories

3 Consumer Electronics

4 Computer Hardware

5 Home & Garden

Top 10 Heaviest Online Spending Days in 2013

With the heaviest portions of the online holiday season now in the books, comScore can report the top ten biggest sales days for 2013. The season was once again led by Cyber Monday (Dec. 2) with a record $1.735 billion in desktop spending, followed by Tuesday, Dec. 3 with $1.410 billion and Green Monday (Dec. 9) with $1.401 billion. The 2013 holiday season saw 10 days with more than $1 billion spending, but down from last year's total of 12 individual days, reflecting the compressed calendar between Thanksgiving and Christmas that featured six fewer days of online shopping.

Top 10 U.S. Online Spending Days of 2013

Non-Travel (Retail) Spending

Excludes Auctions and Large Corporate Purchases

Total U.S. - Home & Work Desktop Computers

Source: comScore, Inc.

Rank Date Spending in Millions ($)

1 Monday, Dec. 2 (Cyber Monday) $1,735

2 Tuesday, Dec. 3 $1,410

3 Monday, Dec. 9 (Green Monday) $1,401

4 Thursday, Dec. 12 $1,317

5 Friday, Nov. 29 (Black Friday) $1,199

6 Wednesday, Dec. 4 $1,172

7 Wednesday, Dec. 11 $1,161

8 Tuesday, Dec. 10 $1,138

9 Friday, Dec. 13 $1,021

10 Thursday, Dec. 5 $1,014

LINK:	http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Press_Releases/2013/12/Final_Online_S...
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