Holiday Online Spending To Jump 16% To $61B

Americans will spend $61 billion on retail ecommerce for the holidays this year, up 16 percent from the same period in 2013, Chain Store Age reported.

Online buying using desktop computers will represent the vast majority of that spending, reaching $53.2 billion, according to comScore’s 2014 holiday forecast. Despite the much-ballyhooed shift to mobile commerce, growth in PC-based ecommerce is actually increasing — up 14 percent year-over-year, compared with 10 percent growth from 2012 to 2013.

But while mobile commerce — using smartphones and tablets — is predicted to account for only 13 percent of total U.S. digital commerce at $7.9 billion, that’s still a 25 percent annual growth rate.

“Although some lasting effects of the great recession still provide some overhang on the economy, many of the latest indicators point toward signs of optimism for consumer spending during the holidays,” said Gian Fulgoni, executive chairman emeritus of comScore, in a statement announcing the projections. “Negative economic sentiment is at a five-year low, the stock market is near all-time highs, and inflation has been kept in check.”

The holiday spending will follow Q3 U.S. ecommerce sales of $60.6 billion, according to comScore. That’s $53.9 billion in desktop ecommerce spending (up 13 percent from 2013) and $6.7 billion in mobile ecommerce spending (up 17 percent from a year ago).