PINcept.com: eCommerce Sales Up 19%

eCommerce Sales Up 19%

Consumer technology e-commerce sales rose 19 percent in the first two weeks of the holiday shopping season, industry tracker NPD Group said Friday, providing a bit of good news in an otherwise gloomy period for retailers.

Online sales in the two weeks ended December 6 climbed to $700 million, with LCD TVs, notebook computers and digital cameras leading the way.

"It's up in an environment where everything else is down," said NPD analyst Stephen Baker. "The economy is in play because people at least perceive that pricing is cheaper online."

E-commerce sales showed strength even as traditional holiday sales are faltering.

Last week, NPD said U.S. consumer technology brick-and-mortar sales showed their first-ever decline during the week of Black Friday, from November 23 through November 29, falling more than 8 percent to $2.03 billion .

Baker said consumers continue to migrate to the Web to make their technology purchases. Online buyers tend to be higher-income and a bit more gadget-savvy, so it's not so surprising that e-commerce technology sales are faring better than traditional sales, he said.