Research groups predict robust online holiday shopping
After a tumultuous presidential election, will Americans be ready to shop for the holidays? Research firms are predicting robust growth for online shopping, at least.
ComScore predicts online spending on Cyber Monday, which follows Black Friday and is typically the busiest day of the year for online shopping, will jump to $3.5 billion from $3.12 billion last year.
The firm's preliminary holiday shopping forecast is for sales to rise as much as 19 percent to $81 billion.
Aside from a dip the day after the election, there are no signs that shoppers' appetite for spending has been seriously weakened, said comScore analyst Andrew Lipsman
"It seems to be mostly isolated to the immediate effect," he said.
Another firm, Adobe Digital Insights, predicts that online sales will increase 11 percent to $91.6 billion this holiday season.
About 17 percent of holiday spending is done online. Overall, the National Retail Federation, based in Washington, D.C., is forecasting holiday sales for the November and December period to rise 3.6 percent to $655.8 billion, better than the 3 percent growth seen in the year-ago period.
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