Year after year online sales have been increasing which means that more people are starting to trust buying things over the Internet. I found some interesting information about online shopping for 2006. Much of this data comes from the National Retail Federation and Forrester Research Inc.
Something phenomenal happened for online sales this year. 2006 was the first time that retailers sold more clothing and apparel online than they did computers and their trappings.
Online computer sales have always been larger than other online retail sales. I believe this is because geeks are first to try anything computer related. Personally, if I need to purchase anything other than the basics, I will look online first. I just bought a trashcan online…what more can I say?
No gas is spent going to the store (a big deal right now), it arrives at my door, if there is a problem I can immediately get help online and even send it back fairly easily, etc. All of that changes for me if I need the item right now. When that is the case I will run to a local B&M (Brick & Mortar retail store) and buy it there…you know how that immediate gratification thing works.
But let’s get back to the stats. In 2006, apparel, accessories and footwear did $18.3 billon in sales. That compares to $17.2 billion for computer hardware and software, in third place for the first time. And yes, that isn’t a mistake those are both billions…with a “B”, not scrawny little millions.
Total of online sales were $146.5 billion which excludes travel sales, which I will mention in a minute and is why it says “third place” above. The other top online sellers are autos and auto parts at $16.7 billion and home furnishings for $10 billion.
The reason that online travel sales are excluded is that it is the largest category and throws off the stats since it is so far above everything else. For 2006 online travel sales did about $73.5 billion all by itself. That means that for 2006, online sales were about $220 billion; up 25% from 2005.
I found a couple of interesting predictions too. Forecasters say that this year 10% of all clothing sales will be done online and that the expected sales total for 2007 will be about $259 billion.
I thought that music sales online would be one of the big ones. However, ABC News said “Global online music sales nearly doubled in 2006 to about $2 billion…” Gee, only $2 billion?!
This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 5th, 2007 at 8:57 am and is filed under Columns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
