This holiday shopping season, the United States might experience a deep decline in growth rates of online sales as compared to the previous year. The projected E-Commerce sales this holiday season is 32.1 billion, up 10.1% over 2007 sales. This projected sale excludes travel sales i.e. online travel, event tickets and digital download sales. Though the economic slowdown will leave its impact on online sales, repercussions will be felt more by physical stores like Wal-Mart and Best Buy (source:Emarketer).

Let’s have a look on the figures which reflects drastic change in the preferred channel for shoppers this season:

Source: Etailing Group

Important holiday shopping dates this year 2008:

Halloween - 31st October, 2008
Thanks Giving Day – 27th November, 2008. (Every 4th Thursday of November)
Black Friday – 28th November, 2008. (Friday after Thanks Giving Day)
Cyber Monday – 1st December, 2008. (Monday after Thank Giving Day)
Christmas – 25th December, 2008.

Source: ComScore

Given below are the E-Commerce sales (excludes travel) recorded during holiday season in last 6 years:

Source: Emarketer

Here are some quick facts researched by NRF associated with Holiday Shopping Season this year:

• 40% of total shoppers are planning to start their shopping before Halloween.
• US consumers’ average spending will be more this year $832.36, up 1.9% over last year’s $816.19. This figure will represent the lowest percentage increase in average spending since 2002.
• Due to the slowdown in economy, consumers will stick with their tight budget for shopping.
• Price will play the biggest role in driving consumers’ buying decisions.

40% of total shoppers give preference to or select those stores which offer good discounts & promotions.
12.6% consumers say that they would be interested in daily bargains or lowest prices tagged on daily basis.
21.5% consumers are looking for wider selection of merchandise/products.
13.4% consumers give preference to the quality of the merchandise.
5.6% of consumers choose the store on basis of after sales/customer support & location wise respectively.

• Promotions & savings are top notch incentives a shopper would be looking for during this holiday season. Due to this reason, almost 69% of consumers will shop heavily from discounted stores.
• An average US consumer ‘s average spending this time will be less specifically on gifts for family ($466.13 which is less in compare to last years $469) when compared to others which include spending on decoration ($51.43), greeting cards & postage ($32.43), candy & food ($95.04) & flowers ($22.61).