Online shopping slowed in September from the previous month, but was still up sharply year-over-year, signaling that the Sept. 11 terror attacks had a limited longer-term effect on the sector.
September consumer Web spending dropped 16 percent to $4.7 billion from August’s $5.6 billion, according to a new report from Nielsen/NetRatings and Harris Interactive.
Still, spending was up 54 percent from a year ago.
Almost 39 million people shopped online in September, up from 37.1 million in August, and 30.9 million last year.
Travel services are still the most popular e-commerce category, growing 38 percent to $1.1 billion from $795 million last year. But September travel spending was down 27 percent from August, when sales hit $1.5 billion.
Airline ticket-price discounts are responsible for part of the sales drop, according to Sean Kaldor, vice president of analytical services for NetRatings.
Security issues surrounding e-tickets and avoidance of air travel also drove spending down sequentially, he said.
Among other categories, book sales jumped 148 percent to $300 million for September, which likely benefited category leaders like Amazon.com Inc., Kaldor said.
Clothing and apparel sales accounted for $494 million in September, up 79 percent from last year.
Auctions reached $407 million, while computer sales hit $380 million.
The report–indicating a rebound in online shopping following a sharp dip–is largely in line with data from other firms. ComScore Networks Inc., a Reston, Va., company that tracks Internet traffic and sales, reported that in the week following the attacks, online sales fell 35 percent to $546 million from $837 million the prior week.
Online sales were up 17 percent the week ended Oct. 8, from the week ended Sept. 10, according to BizRate.com, a comparison Web site and research firm that tracks 2,000 online sites.
Still, online sales during the holiday months are difficult to predict despite the rosy September reports, given the uncertain political and military situation, Kaldor said.
“Our assumptions for the holidays assume that the situation is reaching a steady state–that there won’t be any major surprises.”
