S&P 500
7,411.40
+0.10%
Dow Jones
49,672.20
-0.26%
Nasdaq 100
29,161.20
+0.36%
Russell 2000
2,832.04
-0.36%
FTSE 100
10,311.00
+0.27%
Nikkei 225
63,001.40
+0.81%
Stock Market Live May 13, 2026: S&P 500 Down on Jump in Inflation

Retail

Brutal Year For E-Commerce, Online Holiday Sales Up Only 3.5%

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

Invalid Image
There had been a great deal of hope among online retailers that 2009 would be a substantial improvement over 2008, a year in which e-commerce revenue growth was the worst it has been since measurements began.

Online websites should be taking more market share from bricks-and-mortar stores as more people become comfortable with shopping online. Large snow storms that kept shoppers off the roads should also have bumped e-commerce sales. But, it did not work out that way. comScore, the leading researcher of online commercial activity, reports that internet retail was up only 5% this holiday season to $27.1 billion. Once the figures are adjusted for the number of shopping days last year and this, the improvement was only 3.5%.

Sales of consumer electronics rose 20% from November 1 to December 24, which means that the sales of almost every other category of goods and services dropped during the period.

Happy New Year.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google
Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

Featured Reads

Our top personal finance-related articles today. Your wallet will thank you later.

10 Elon Musk Quotes Every 40-Year-Old Should Live By
Don Lair |

10 Elon Musk Quotes Every 40-Year-Old Should Live By
The Northwestern Mutual 2025 Legacy Study Says 39% of Gen Z Plans to Leave an Inheritance, More Than Any Other Generation
David Beren |

The Northwestern Mutual 2025 Legacy Study Says 39% of Gen Z Plans to Leave an Inheritance, More Than Any Other Generation

Continue Reading

Douglas A. McIntyre |

Cyber Monday Sales Surge Nearly 20%

Cyber Monday sales rose 19.4% from the same day last year according to Coremetrics, which should create a great deal…

Douglas A. McIntyre |

2008 And The Death Of E-Commerce: The Internet Is Getting Old

The great promise of the online commerce industry has been that it would grow at a rate faster than bricks-and-mortar…

Douglas A. McIntyre |

E-commerce Continues to Set Records, Advantage to Amazon.com

Holiday e-commerce sales continue to set records. Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN), which is the leader in e-commerce sales by far as…

Douglas A. McIntyre |

American Habit of Shopping Online Increases for Holidays

No matter what type of retailer, holiday spending will be relatively bright, according to a new study.

Douglas A. McIntyre |

The Renaissance Of E-Commerce (M)(JWN)(AMZN)(WMT)(TGT)

There are bits of research that say holiday e-commerce sales rose in the double digits over the Thanksgiving weekend and…

Weather Appears to Favor Retailers for Holidays
Douglas A. McIntyre |

Weather Appears to Favor Retailers for Holidays

If cold and snow keep customers away from retailers, this year the weather should favor them, according to the National…

Cyber Monday Sales Rocket to $6.6 Billion
Douglas A. McIntyre |

Cyber Monday Sales Rocket to $6.6 Billion

Cyber Monday sales surged almost 17% to more than $6 billion, and total online sales have topped $1 billion every…

Douglas A. McIntyre |

Evidence Grows That Amazon Thrives as Weak Retailers J.C. Penney and Sears Falter

Wikimedia CommonsAgain and again, retail experts and research firms that cover the retail industry offer evidence that Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:…

Jon C. Ogg |

Very Differing Views on 2014 Holiday Retail Sales Growth Expectations

The big question for retailers and for the economy is how the key fourth quarter will turn out. Two key…

Top Gaining Stocks

ON Semiconductor
ON • Vol: 1,467,434
Texas Instruments
TXN • Vol: 720,327
3M
MMM • Vol: 712,296
First Solar
FSLR • Vol: 141,548
Micron Technology
MU • Vol: 9,720,140

Top Losing Stocks

Coterra Energy
CTRA • Vol: 73,319,495
GoDaddy
GDDY • Vol: 117,475
Moderna
MRNA • Vol: 880,391
SBA Communications
SBAC • Vol: 141,047
Constellation Energy
CEG • Vol: 395,846