eCommerce Booms While Traditional Retail Slows
While brick & mortar retailers, from Wal-Mart to
According to web analytics provider comScore, revenues for non-travel related
The strongest online retail category was video games and accessories, which nearly tripled its revenues from the prior period, fueled by sales of the Nintendo Wii and Sony Playstation 3.
eCommerce purchases of video games, at 199% are growing at a faster clip than the overall video game hardware segment, which grew at 65% year-over-year for the month of September, following a 48% gain in August, according to NPD Group. Video game software growth was similarly lower, at 47% in September and 22% in August.
Other segments experiencing strong growth include consumer electronics, toys & hobbies and event tickets, each seeing more than 50% year-over-year growth in the quarter. As the music industry sees continued erosion in CD sales, many top performers have focused their efforts on generating revenue from concerts.
The growth in the toy category may have been the biggest surprise, coming on the heels of the well-publicized Mattel recalls. According to comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni:
Despite the negative publicity of toy recalls, the third quarter saw robust growth for online toy sales. Given some of the uncertainty surrounding the holiday season, it’s possible that consumers were responding to fears of toy shortages and making their purchases early.
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