Online Shopping

According to this survey by Nielsen/NetRatings, Goldman Sachs, and Harris InterActive, consumers, in the period between October 29th through December 23, spent 27% of their total holiday budgets in online e-commerce purchases.

The top category was apparel, which managed to beat out computer peripherals and consumer electronics. Not too many years ago, the consensus of analysts felt that on-line purchases of apparel did not represent a threat to more conventional stores.

Analysts have relied heavily in the past on mall walkthroughs and secret shopper surveys to decide on promotional pricing, inventory levels, and sell-through for their analytical work on retailers. As e-commerce trends become overwhelming drivers of growth for certain retailers, there is an increasing likelihood that most analysts will be missing the boat.

How soon will it be before we will begin to see separate segmented reporting for the internet sales of our retailing companies? Though anecdotal commentary exists in isolated cases, companies should be required to break this out as material information.