Christmas 2010 was a great holiday season for the web business, but don’t just take my personal anecdote for it.
According to Comscore via CNN:
Holiday shopping online was strong right through Christmas, with consumers spending a record $30.8 billion for the season, according to a research firm report issued Wednesday.
Online sales for the 56 days ended Dec. 27 rose 13% from the same period in 2009, according to Reston, Va,-based comScore. There was a 17% year-over-year surge in the week that ended Dec. 26 — the day after Christmas.
Since Black Friday, it has been seeming like one online sale after another – and it seems to have paid off with big gains for computer hardware, electronics, and online services. Video games were another big winner, and from the buzz on the gaming forums you’d think that Steam’s Holiday Sale was responsible for a significant chunk of that on their own. Personally, I picked up at least a dozen titles as it was a great way to shop for friends without leaving the house.
Then the sale kept going. And I had to grab a couple things for myself. And the next day of course, different games were on sale… so I had to grab a couple of other things for myself… You can see where this is headed of course, because now I’m counting down to tomorrow’s deals! It might almost be New Years, but I’ve got the debit card on hand like I was still making last minute Christmas purchases.
Now, I can’t find any hard data on hosting sales specifically, but I can say from my perspective that plenty of people spent their vacations looking for a way to get a website online. In fact, this last month has been one of my best ever despite the fact that I completely fell out of Google for about two weeks while I was transferring servers (and screwing up DNS/IP records).
I’d say it is about time to start thinking of the internet as an established & matured business platform, rather than any kind of fad or even wild frontier. Shopping online, from Ebay, Amazon, and the iTunes Store to Newegg and TigerDirect, a lot of people these days simply think of the web first when they think about buying something new.
Hell, even my dad finally cracked and used his credit card online! Even as a fully fledged technophobe, he rated the experience as professional, convenient, and incredibly useful for comparing prices. I figure, if there is any bad news in this, it is that we’re running out of demographic growth as just about everyone is willing to buy something online. The only growth left might be convincing them to buy a bigger share of that online, or through your stores in particular!
hi John,
I’d read about the increased holiday sales (which is welcome news) but not about the increase in online sales, though my expectation is they will continue to grow as more and more people “discover” the convenience of shopping online. I hadn’t thought about web hosting sales increasing, but that make sense as more people try to grab a piece of the pie, and also to find something to support them in this economy! 🙂 Glad to hear your business is doing well.
A belated Merry Christmas, and a Happy and Prosperous New Year to you! Steve
Hey Steve, hope you had a great holiday as well!
I was struck by how much on-line selling seems to have hit the high street when I did some Christmas shopping in town (albeit because I’d left it too late to get things delivered from the internet!)
About 20% of shops seemed to have vanished since last year.
Whilst I know there is also a recession to consider, the fact that web sales have increased suggests that they are losing a lot to on-line sales.