December 21, 2011|Susan Reimer
Online shopping topped $30 billion with 10 days to go until Christmas, up an astonishing 15 percent over last year and providing a much-needed boost to the economic mood in this country.
You're welcome.
OK, I didn't spent the $30 billion myself. I had help.
Online shopping has been available for Christmas for a while now, but this year I — and apparently a lot of other shoppers -- bought just about all my gifts with the simple click of a mouse. No traffic jams. No battle for a parking spot. No crowds. No lines. No crying children.
Just my computer, my credit card and me. In my pajamas.
I am not a fan of shopping malls at any time of the year, but all the rookies come out at Christmas and they make life hell for us pros. Now I can avoid the whole exhausting scene, and I don't have to carry any packages to the car. They arrive at my door, some of them gift-wrapped.
Retail experts are telling us there are a couple of reasons — beyond my personal contribution — for the surge in online shopping this year, but I am betting it is the free shipping.
I could never get my head around the idea of paying to have something delivered when I could pick it up myself for free. I am cheap like that.
But when the first stores and catalogs dropped shipping charges, everyone else was forced to do the same. And now, as the big day approaches, the bonus promise is "free shipping and in time for Christmas."
(It is telling that FedEx is having its best year ever, with profits up 76 percent. The company delivered 17 million packages on Dec. 12, its busiest single day in 40 years, and is planning to buy 27 new planes. FedEx also said it was going to have to raise its rates, but we won't care as long as we still think we are getting free shipping.)
And boss, if you are reading this, I did not do my shopping on my computer here at work.
But apparently everyone else did.
Sales on Cyber Monday, which followed Black Friday, topped $1.3 billion, up 22 percent from the year before, but it didn't stop there. The following Monday online sales were $1.2 billion, and the next Monday, they reached $1.1 billion, according to ComScore, which is tracking the numbers.
And we spent more than a billion dollars a day in the four days from Dec. 12 to Dec. 16. And I don't think we did all that shopping from the kitchen table.
We do our shopping at work around lunchtime, apparently, because that's when retailers see the first spike of the day. There is another spike at the end of the day, while we wait for the whistle to blow. And some of us are buying during the commute home, using our iPads and our smartphones.
This is just another example, says New York University sociology professor Kathleen Gerson, of the blurring of the line between work and home. Apparently, we think if the boss can email us during dinner, we can take that time back by searching online for the best deal on a flat-screen television during the workday.
The bad news this holiday season is that sales at brick-and-mortar stores are up an anemic 3 percent over last year.
Soon, it seems, there might not be a mall to avoid at Christmastime.
susan.reimer@baltsun.com
