Video Games Drive Online Holiday Spending Growth

While the economy is off at the beginning of 2008, the holiday shopping season does seem to have ended with some strength. Online sales growth accelerated from the 18% year over year trend discusses here to just under 20% for the season ending December 31, 2007. However the trend is down from so-called "Cyber Monday", which is the Monday after Thanksgiving on which retailers are said to begin offering some of their deepest discounts.



Overall online sales grew by $4.6 billion to $29.17 billion for the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas. These numbers are being born out by companies like Circuit City, which delivered 17% online and call center growth in December despite an 11% same store sales decline.

The strongest growth occurred in Video Game sales as American's appetites for home entertainment continues unabated, and the open console battles being fought by Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony continue to play out.



Sony reported that it sold 1.2 million Playstation III's since Black Friday yesterday, a number that has not yet been reported by Microsoft and Nintendo. However, the company also announced that Blu-Ray DVD's will be playable on its game console going forward, which is certainly likely to drive further adoption for the new machine.