The Online Customer Is Spending Less

For all the significance attached to Cyber Monday, the unofficial start of the online holiday shopping season on the day after Thanksgiving weekend, this year’s numbers were hardly inspiring. Chase Paymentech’s Cyber Holiday Pulse Index reported an increase for Cyber Monday 2008 of less than 1 percent in revenue, although it also recorded 14 percent more total transactions this year. What gives? The answer lies in the average value of each purchase by online shoppers, down 12 percent from last year. Chase’s index, which surveys 25 of the largest 150 retailers on its Internet payment processing network, showed that the average shopper spent $7.19 less per transaction on Cyber Monday this year over last — reflecting deeper discounts than usual, thriftier shoppers or both.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/08/business/08drill.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&ref=business&adxnnlx=1228727922-D6ObLxp6qyQ8isgXkyJycA