News Byte

Citi: Positive Trends Ahead for E-Commerce

According to a brief from comScore, total U.S. online spending in January — including retail and travel — grew 13 percent year over year to $23 billion, compared to 11 percent in December. Both months were pointing slightly downward from fourth-quarter online spending, which saw 14 percent year-over-year growth, but Citi analyst Mark Mahaney said in a note that he sees overall positive trends ahead in e-commerce, with the possibility of seeing pre-recession 20 percent growth rates. Key segments contributing to January’s overall growth included online sales of computer software, jewelry and watches, and home electronics.

Rupert Murdoch’s Daily for iPad Debuts Feb. 2

The Daily, the iPad newspaper News Corp. was supposed to unveil a few weeks ago, has a new launch date and a new venue for its debut: Feb. 2 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.

A Lot of iSales: Apple Sold 7.3 Million iPads, 16.2 Million iPhones in December Quarter

Apple’s quarterly sales included more than 4 million Macs and 16 million iPhones, along with 19.45 million iPods and 7.33 million iPads.

Yahoo Search Share Down in Yet Another Month, While Microsoft Bing Gains Again

After Yahoo and Microsoft finally integrated their massive search technology and advertising partnership, comScore is reporting that Yahoo’s explicit core search share in the U.S. had declined in December. Which was down from November, which was down from October, which was down from September, which was down from August….You get the picture.

Xbox 360 Sold Out Last Month

Here’s an interesting data point regarding Microsoft’s Xbox. According to Larry Hryb, director of programming for Xbox Live, the Xbox 360 was sold out by the end of December, and the company is evidently struggling to keep up with demand. “Jan/Feb supply is tight as well,” Hryb said in a tweet, adding that he expects “amazing” year-over-year growth in 2011. We’ll see where things stand when NPD releases its December sales data today.

News Byte

Best Buy Reports Soft December, but Online Sales Are Up

Best Buy reported today that U.S. same-store sales declined 5 percent in December compared to a strong 9.3 percent sales growth in the same period last year. The company’s performance matched the experiences of other retailers, which also reported declines at year end. In the case of the big-box electronics retailer, it said the drop was driven by softness in entertainment software and TV, but was partially offset by growth in Best Buy Mobile and appliances. Online sales were also strong, resulting in a 13 percent increase in December year-over-year.

News Byte

Holiday Retail Sales Not as Jolly as Expected

Retail stocks are diving this morning on news that the month of December did not perform as strongly as expected. However, that weakness was offset by a strong November, allowing retailers to celebrate their strongest holiday sales increase since 2006, AP reports. Online spending may eventually brighten the picture, since some retailers don’t include e-commerce in their monthly figures. Americans spent a record amount online this season, jumping 13 percent over 2009.

News Byte

Retailers Expected to Report Best December Since 2006

Confident consumers continued to spend up until the end of the year, putting some retailers on track to post their best same-store sales for the month of December in four years, MarketWatch reports. Retailers are expected to report final numbers on Thursday for the busiest month of the year, but already some retailers, like Barnes & Noble, have reported preliminary holiday results, revealing that spending was up 9.7 percent. Overall, research firm Retail Metrics is expecting December sales at stores open at least a year to jump 3.4 percent compared to last year.

Fun With Mobile Stats: Holiday Edition

Zillow and eBay offer up some year-end stats on mobile visits. Read on to find out which site saw record mobile traffic on Christmas and the day after.

Fact or Fiction: Cyber Monday Is the Heaviest Online Shopping Day of the Year

The retail industry would like you to believe that “Cyber Monday,” the Monday following Thanksgiving, is the busiest e-commerce day of the year. But is it?

Did Web Video Just Stall?

Another Holiday Blowout for Apple?

Econalypto: A Rightsizing Roundup