From a Betta fish brooch to a “dragon’s trove” of zircon eggs, here are seven pieces that’ve stuck with Associate Editor Lauren McLemore.
Online holiday spending increases as expected
U.S. retail e-commerce spending from desktop computers in November and December increased 15 percent year-over-year, which is very close to the 14 percent sales growth comScore forecast.
Reston, Va.--U.S. retail e-commerce spending from desktop computers in November and December increased 15 percent year-over-year, which is very close to the 14 percent sales growth comScore forecast.
According to numbers released by the company Wednesday, shoppers spent $53.3 billion shopping from their desktop computers in November and December 2014, as compared to $46.55 billion last year.
For the fifth consecutive year, Cyber Monday (Dec. 1) was the top spending day of the year, with more than $2.04 billion in desktop spending. That is a 26 percent increase over the $1.74 billion spent in 2013.
This was followed closely by the day after Cyber Monday (Dec. 2), which ranked second at $1.8 billion, followed by Monday, Dec. 8 at $1.62 billion, and Black Friday (Nov. 28) at $1.51 billion.
ComScore also noted that during the season, 15 individual days exceeded $1 billion in spending online via desktop computers, marking a significant increase from the 10 recorded in 2013.
“Despite a shortened holiday calendar between Thanksgiving and Christmas and erroneous reports of flagging holiday sales, the American consumer proved resilient and flexed their spending muscle online this year,” said comScore chairman emeritus Gian Fulgoni.
“Increasing positive consumer sentiment, improving job growth and declining gas prices all combined to create a more favorable spending environment, and consumers responded by opening up their wallets in a way they hadn’t since before the financial crisis.”
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