Report: E-commerce spending up 9%

Reston, Va. A report released Tuesday by digital marketing firm comScore found that U.S. retail e-commerce sales estimates are up 9% for second quarter 2010.

The second quarter 2010 U.S. retail e-commerce report showed online retail spending reached $32.9 billion for the quarter, up 9% versus a year ago, representing the third consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth following a year of flat or negative growth rates.

“The second quarter’s continuation of the first quarter’s strong retail e-commerce growth rates is encouraging,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. “We remain cautiously optimistic heading into the second half of the year, but we will be keeping a close eye on unemployment rates, which along with potential uncertainty in the stock market could limit growth in e-commerce spending in the near term.”

Other key findings from the report include: Upper-income households (those earning at least $100,000 annually) grew 17% versus a year ago, approximately twice the overall e-commerce growth rate during the quarter. Among the top-performing online product categories were: consumer electronics (excluding PC peripherals), computer software (excluding PC games), Computers/Peripherals/PDAs, and books & magazines. Multichannel retailers regained e-commerce spending market share versus online pureplay retailers following five consecutive quarters of declining market share.