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Online holiday sales drop 3 percent

Online holiday spending declined 3 percent compared with last year's online shopping season, the first negative growth rate in the past eight years, according to a ComScore report released Tuesday.

Between November 1 and December 23, U.S. online merchants recorded $25.5 billion in sales, down from $26.3 billion during the same period last year, ComScore reported. Gian Fulgoni, the research firm's chairman, blamed economic pessimism for the poor results:

The combination of having five fewer shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas and the severe economic headwinds faced by consumers has made this a really tough … Read more

Holiday report: E-commerce dips, electronics plummet

Over the next few days, a picture of holiday sales will begin to materialize.

One of the first reports to surface doesn't sound incredibly painful until specific categories--like electronics--are broken out. And then the hurt becomes obvious.

MasterCard Advisors, a unit of the credit card giant, released on Friday its SpendingPulse analysis of national retail and service sales for the holiday-shopping season.

Overall retail sales year over year (excluding gasoline, which doesn't make a great holiday gift anyway) were down 2 percent in November and down 4 percent from December 1 to 24.

Overall, e-commerce fared relatively well … Read more

Online spending doubles for weekend before Christmas

Here's a little statistical cheer for online retailers bracing themselves for what many have been predicting will be a dismal holiday sales season.

The latest online retail spending report released Tuesday by ComScore shows that consumers last weekend spent almost double what they spent on the corresponding weekend before Christmas last year. U.S. consumers online spent $677 million last weekend, December 20 and 21, compared to $341 million the weekend before Christmas in 2007, which was December 22 and 23.

It should be noted, however, that there are five fewer days this year between Thanksgiving and Christmas, making … Read more

Converting App Store Sales Ranks to Sales Numbers

Ever since Apple stopped listing exact sales numbers for iPhone App Store applications, developers have been seeking some sort of guide to how sales rank translates to actual unit totals. One developer, Joel Comm, has released rank-to-sales stats for his dubious "iFart Mobile" application, as follows:

12/12 - 75 units - #70 entertainment 12/13 - 296 units - #16 entertainment 12/14 - 841 units - #76 overall, #8 entertainment 12/15 - 1510 units - #39 overall, #5 entertainment 12/16 - 1797 units - #22 overall, #3 entertainment 12/17 - 2836 units - #… Read more

Consumers still buying electronics as family gifts

Holiday spending on electronics for family members remains high on the to-do list, according to a survey by IDC and the National Research Network (NRN).

According to results from a survey of more than 3,000 consumers, 62 percent indicated they planned to spend the same amount or more on electronics for family members this holiday.

Those surprising results come as big-box electronics retailers face a challenging time. Best Buy announced a 77 percent drop in earnings and call for employee buyouts earlier this month and Circuit City filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last month.

Nonetheless, consumers are maintaining their … Read more

New York considers taxing iTunes downloads

New York wants a share of iTunes' money.

The state is staring at a $15.4 billion deficit so Gov. David Paterson is proposing an "iPod tax" as part of his state budget. Under the plan, New York would charge state and local sales tax for "digitally delivered entertainment services," according to a story in The New York Daily News.

That includes e-books downloaded to Amazon's Kindle as well as for the digital songs obtained from Apple's iTunes. If the state legislature passes the governor's plan, the price of digital content for New … Read more

Best Buy earnings drop 77 percent, offering buyouts

This blog was corrected at 3:35 p.m. PT to clarify the number of Best Buy employees offered buyouts.

Although Black Friday sales were better than expected, Best Buy's third-quarter earnings brought another heaping of bad news for the embattled electronics retail industry.

For the third quarter of 2008, Best Buy reported earnings Tuesday of $52 million, or 13 cents per share, on revenue of $11.5 billion. Wall Street had been anticipating earnings of 24 cents per share and revenue of $11.09 billion. It's a 77 percent drop from the same quarter a year ago, … Read more

Report: Mac sales hit a slowdown

Apple has been something of a golden child among makers of computers and consumer electronics. But now it, too, is showing at least a hint that the good times can't last forever.

In November, says market researcher NPD Group, sales of the company's Mac products slipped 1 percent from the same month a year ago, even as industrywide PC sales were up 2 percent, according to a report in the online edition of The Wall Street Journal.

Apple has been the pacesetter amid overall PC sales for some time. And it does continue to hold those honors, at … Read more

RadioShack sells $99 Netbook with 2-year AT&T contract

RadioShack is selling an Acer Aspire One 3G Netbook for $99, with a two-year AT&T DataConnect contract.

The Acer Aspire One grabbed 38.3 percent of Netbook market share in the third quarter, propelling it past industry pioneer Asus and its Eee PC 4G.

Acer's Aspire One normally sells for about $300.

The RadioShack-AT&T offer, as previously reported, is valid through December 24. The 2.44-pound, 9.8-inch by 6.7-inch Netbook includes:

• Built-in 3G capability • 802.11b/g wireless (Wi-Fi) • 8.9-inch LCD screen • Built-in Webcam • Intel Atom processor •&… Read more