ComScore, the US-based global internet shopping monitoring body has released its latest figures on world online spending for the holiday season and the full year 2005.

The research company reports that online non-travel spending during the 2005 holiday season between November 1 and December 31, 2005 totalled $19.6bn, during the period, representing a 25% increase on the $15.7bn of estimated sales over the same period in 2004. At the same time, online travel spending generated an additional $8.6 billion during November and December.
ComScore adds that total internet spending for the full year 2005, excluding auction sites and large corporate purchases, butincluding travel, reached $143.2bn, up 22% on the $117.2bn spent online in 2004.
‘With $143bn spent online in 2005 and a growth rate of 22%, this was clearly another very strong year for e-commerce,’ said Gian Fulgoni, comScore Chairman. ‘We also estimate that online spending on non-travel now represents approximately 6% of all consumer retail spending, excluding expenditures for autos, gasoline and food. So, a 24% annual increase in online spending represents more than a full percentage point of consumers' expenditures, clearly showing that the traditional metric, retail same-store sales, alone is no longer sufficient to paint an accurate picture of trends in consumer spending.’
An analysis of sales growth for select product categories revealed that clothing and accessories was one of the fastest growing areas in 2005, rising 36% above 2004 sales levels to $12.2bn.
comScore said that ‘consumers' increased comfort in purchasing online’ contributed to strong sales performances across a broad range of products, as evidenced by exceptional growth in categories ranging from home and garden (+32%); jewellery and watches (+27%) and even furniture (+24%).
comScore Networks claims to provide ‘unparalleled insight’ into consumer behaviour and attitudes, based on research across a global cross-section of more than 2m consumers. These consumers have given comScore explicit permission to confidentially capture their browsing and transaction behaviour, including online and offline purchasing. For more information on these numbers, visit www.comscore.com