Great news for online retailers - Rapaport reports that internet retail sales grew to $36.3 billion – up 13% from last year. The third quarter, which ended in September.
According to Rapaport, “This healthy growth rate represented the eighth consecutive quarter of positive gains and the fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth rates.” The report comes from comScore, who stated that the main drivers of the increase were digital content and subscriptions, with jewelry, watches, event ticket and electronics rounding out the categories that each saw a 15% increase from 2010′s third quarter.
”The third quarter of 2011 saw a continuation of the year’s strength in U.S. retail e-commerce spending, even in the face of renewed economic headwinds and uncertainty facing the U.S. consumer,” said comScore’s chairman, Gian Fulgoni. ”As we approach the critical holiday shopping season, we are optimistic about the continued health of the e-commerce sector despite other factors.”
Those factors are, no surprise, the sluggish economic recovery and high unemployment rates. However, Etailers offer convenience and competitive pricing, something valuable to hard-pressed consumers. It also creates a platform for easy consumer awareness with uncomplicated ways to compare prices.
RLJ finds that our online store allows customers the ease of shopping from home (which isn’t always local to Boca Raton or even palm Beach county). It also allows our more tech-savvy consumers an option that fits with the lifestyle they’re comfortable with (one that increasingly is online). We still have our brick-and-mortar showroom for those customers who want the traditional jewelry purchasing experience, but out eBay store and watch site allow us to reach a much bigger audience.
Do you have an online store, jewelry or otherwise? And how do your numbers stack up to those reported by comScore and Rapaport?
Liz for Raymond Lee Jewelers, your source for luxury watches, estate jewelry and diamond industry news.