Online Sales Continue to Grow in Q1 2003
Online shopping sales in the first quarter of 2003 continued to grow at a respectable rate despite the war in Iraq and a sluggish economy. The first quarter of 2003 produced sales of $12.84 billion dollars - a 27% increase over the same period in 2002 when $10.08 billion was spent, according to leading comparison shopping site and e-commerce research firm BizRate.com. Post-holiday clearance sales in early January helped provide an early boost to first quarter sales with $738.6 million dollars being spent from January 1-5, a 40% increase in sales compared to the same dates last year. The average jump in first quarter sales was driven mainly by the growth in orders made online and not by the amount spent. The average purchase price was down 2%, from $127 in Q1 2002 to $124 in Q1 2003. Orders were up 30% from 79.4 million in Q1 2002 to 103.6 million in Q1 2003. The top categories in terms of sales volume were computer hardware ($3.43 billion), electronics ($2.16 billion) and entertainment ($1.88 billion). The strongest growth in Q1 came from health & beauty (61%), entertainment (58%) and computer hardware (41%) categories.
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