Internet sales growth slows amid caution

Internet sales by U.S. retailers during the holiday season rose at the slowest pace on record as consumers grappled with $3-a-gallon gasoline and the worst housing slump in 16 years.

Online spending from Nov. 1 through Dec. 27 increased 19 percent to almost $28 billion, from $24 billion a year earlier, Reston, Va.-based ComScore Inc. said Sunday. Sales growth trailed last year's 26 percent.

Shoppers withheld spending until after Christmas, seeking deeper discounts by Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, and Richfield-based Best Buy Co., the biggest U.S. consumer electronics chain. Online sales the day after Christmas totaled $545 million, more than double revenue on the same day in 2006. ComScore said.

"Consumers went shopping for price," said Kurt Barnard, president of Barnard's Retail Forecasting in Nutley, N.J. "They looked at the price tag before they looked at the product."

ComScore hasn't recorded online sales growth of less than 20 percent since it began reporting the figures in 2002. Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Circuit City Stores Inc. offered discounts of 50 percent or more and promoted savings for in-store pickup of products purchased online to attract shoppers.

After-Christmas spending showed consumers "were willing, and able, to take advantage of late-season promotions and price discounts," ComScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni said.