comScore recently published its estimates of Q3 2013 U.S. desktop-based retail eCommerce sales.
The bottom line? Mobile hasn’t killed desktop eCommerce… yet.
Q3 2013 sales grew 13 percent year-over-year to $47.5 billion, marking the sixteenth consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth and twelfth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth.
mCommerce spending on smartphones and tablets, on the other hand, added $5.8 billion for the quarter, up 26 percent vs. year ago.
The digital commerce spending total in the third quarter came in at $53.2 billion.
“Third quarter eCommerce spending grew 13 percent from a year ago, and although that marks a pretty healthy growth rate, it also represents a slight deceleration from the prior quarter,” explains comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni.
“Other macroeconomic indicators also suggested relative softness in discretionary spending, which offers some cause for concern as we head into the holiday season,” he continues.
Although there was evidence of slightly diminished consumer confidence in Q3, a more optimistic take is that increased outlays on large purchases such as new homes and automobiles may have temporarily squeezed other discretionary consumer spending.
“That said,” Fulgoni concluded, “the trend could still spell a challenging holiday season for retailers this year – particularly given the highly compressed calendar between Thanksgiving and Christmas, which contains six fewer shopping days than last year and is the shortest shopping season since 2002.”
comScore professes its confidence that the growth rate in online spending will once again far exceed that in bricks-and-mortar stores.
