ECommerce Trends: U.S. E-Commerce Spending in Q4 2009 Reached $39 Billion, Up 3 Percent vs. Year Ago

ComScore Inc. recently announced their its Q4 2009 U.S. retail e-commerce sales estimates which totaled approximately 39 Billion for fourth quarter 2009. This was up 3% over Q4 of the previous year. Total retail e-commerce spending reached $129.8 billion for all of 2009, which was slightly below the previous year’s total of $130.1 billion.

Quarter             E-Commerce Spending
                            ($ Millions)        Y/Y Percent Change

    Q1 2007                   $27,970                   17%
    -------                   -------                  ---
    Q2 2007                   $27,176                   23%
    -------                   -------                  ---
    Q3 2007                   $28,441                   23%
    -------                   -------                  ---
    Q4 2007                   $39,132                   19%
    -------                   -------                  ---
    Q1 2008                   $31,178                   11%
    -------                   -------                  ---
    Q2 2008                   $30,581                   13%
    -------                   -------                  ---
    Q3 2008                   $30,274                    6%
    -------                   -------                  ---
    Q4 2008                   $38,071                   -3%
    -------                   -------                  ---
    Q1 2009                   $31,031                    0%
    -------                   -------                  ---
    Q2 2009                   $30,169                   -1%
    -------                   -------                  ---
    Q3 2009                   $29,552                   -2%
    -------                   -------                  ---
    Q4 2009                   $39,045                    3%
    -------                   -------                  ---

Other highlights from Q4 e-commerce include:

1. Spending growth was driven by an increase in online buyers, while average spending per buyer saw
modest declines.

2. Tuesday, December 15 ranked as the heaviest U.S. online spending day in history at $913 million.

3. The largest online retailers, led by Amazon and Walmart, gained market share of e-commerce sales
versus small and medium-sized retailers.

4. Free shipping factored into more than 40 percent of e-commerce transactions during the holiday season.