Second Quarter 2009 Online Sales Up 2.2%

E-Commerce Statistics Show Sales Rising as Online Advertising Falls

Sep 12, 2009

Monday, August 17, 2009 marked the release of the U.S. Census Bureau's second quarter e-commerce report, with a rise in online sales even as total retail sales declined.

Online retail sales in the United States rose to $32.4 billion and accounted for 3.6% of all retail sales in the second quarter of 2009, even as total retail sales fell 0.4%, according to the U.S Census Bureau's Quarterly Retail E-Commerce Sales 2nd Quarter 2009 report.

The American retail sector has declined steadily since the third quarter of 2008, while e-commerce sales began to rebound in January 2009 and have continued to grow slowly despite the down economy.

Online Sales As a Percentage of Total Retail Sales Growing

E-commerce as a percentage of total retail sales increased slowly but steadily from the second quarter of 2008 to the same period in 2009, from 3.3% to 3.6%. However, total e-commerce spending is still down 4.4% compared to the second quarter of 2008.

Retail in general and online sales both suffered dramatic declines in the fourth quarter of 2008, dropping 7.2% and 6.0% respectively, as Christmas spending plummeted in the wake of the economic crisis.

IDC Points to Second Consecutive Quarterly Drop in Online Advertising Spending

IDC's August 5, 2009, press release outlined important online advertising findings from their report, Worldwide and U.S. Internet Ad Spend Report 2Q09. IDC employs more than 1,000 analysts to study global, regional and local technology and industry trends.

U.S. online advertising spending fell 7% over the same period last year, from $6.6 to $6.2 billion. Display ad spending shrunk 12%, while classified ad spending took the largest loss at 17%. The study found that nearly all major publishers' ad sales declined, with the exception of Google. Monster, largely affected by the shrinking classified ad market, took the hardest hit with a 31% decline in online advertising sales.

Online Advertising and Marketing - Outlook for 2009 and 2010

Karsten Weide, Digital Media and Entertainment program director at IDC, forecasts sustained losses for the duration of 2009. "We think the industry will continue to see losses in the third and fourth quarters," Weide notes in the press release, "but the growth rates- or loss rates, if you will- will eventually begin to improve. However, we also believe the industry may have to wait until mid-2010 until it sees real growth again."

IDC also expects U.S. advertisers to continually decrease their online advertising and marketing expenditures in 2009's third quarter by about the same amount as in the first two quarters, based on the second quarter numbers and the outlooks of major media companies.

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