RESTON, Va., Nov. 25, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- comScore (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today reported holiday season retail e-commerce spending for the first 23 days of the November-December 2014 holiday season. For the holiday season-to-date, $17.5 billion has been spent online using desktop computers, marking an 11-percent increase versus the corresponding days last year. Friday, November 21 has been the heaviest online spending day of the season to date at $914 million in desktop spending. Two other individual shopping days (Wednesday, Nov. 12 and Wednesday, Nov. 19) have also surpassed the $900 million threshold.



    2014 Holiday Season To Date vs. Corresponding Days* in 2013

    Non-Travel (Retail) Spending

    Excludes Auctions and Large Corporate Purchases

    Total U.S. - Home & Work Desktop Computers

    Source: comScore, Inc.
    ----------------------

    Holiday Season to Date                                                Millions ($)
    ----------------------                                                -----------

                               2013                                2014 Percent Change
                               ----                                ---- --------------

    November 1 - 23                                             $15,783        $17,518 11%
    ---------------                                             -------        ------- ---


    *             Corresponding days based on
                  corresponding shopping days (November
                  2 thru November 24, 2013)

"The 2014 online holiday shopping season is off to a very good start with $17.5 billion in desktop e-commerce sales, an increase of 11 percent versus last year and still very much on pace to meet our forecast of 14 percent desktop growth for the full season," said Gian Fulgoni, comScore chairman emeritus. "Although current growth rates are trailing slightly the anticipated full season growth rate, it is important to note that this gap should be essentially made up with the extra shopping day between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year compared to last year. In addition, given the recent strength on certain individual spending days it is likely we'll see our first ever billion dollar spending day occur prior to the Thanksgiving holiday, before the heaviest part of the season even kicks off."

Thanksgiving Day Expected to Continue Strong Gains
Several of the key online shopping days are set to occur within the next two weeks, beginning with Thanksgiving and Black Friday (Nov. 27-28), followed closely by Cyber Monday (Dec. 1) and finally Green Monday (Dec. 8). Although Cyber Monday and Green Monday have historically been the most important days of the online holiday shopping season, Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday have rapidly gained in importance in the past few years. In fact, among the key shopping days, Thanksgiving has had the highest five-year growth rate at 166 percent, while Black Friday has grown 124 percent during that time - both significantly outpacing the growth of Cyber Monday and Green Monday.



    5-Year Growth Rates for Key Online Shopping Days

    Non-Travel (Retail) Spending

    Excludes Auctions and Large Corporate Purchases

    Total U.S. - Home & Work Desktop Computers

    Source: comScore, Inc.
    ----------------------

    Shopping Days                                    Desktop Spending ($ Millions)
    -------------                                     ----------------------------

                        2008                            2013    5 Yr % Chg
                        ----                            ----    ----------

    Thanksgiving Day                                    $288          $766         166%
    ----------------                                    ----          ----          ---

    Black Friday                                        $534        $1,198         124%
    ------------                                        ----        ------          ---

    Cyber Monday                                        $846        $1,735         105%
    ------------                                        ----        ------          ---

    Green Monday                                        $859        $1,401          63%
    ------------                                        ----        ------          ---

"With many retailers opening their doors on Thanksgiving Day in recent years, this has established an expectation with some consumers that it's OK to begin their holiday shopping in earnest on that day," added Fulgoni. "However, with some retailers reversing course and opting this year to keep their doors closed and promote online deals instead, we may see another exceptionally strong year of growth in online buying on Thanksgiving which could push sales as high as the $1 billion mark on that day - which would certainly be a far cry from 2008 when we saw barely a quarter-billion in spending."

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About comScore
comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in digital measurement and analytics, delivering insights on web, mobile and TV consumer behavior that enable clients to maximize the value of their digital investments. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.

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SOURCE comScore