RESTON, VA – If online retail sales are any guide, we may actually be moving into better economic territory. ComScore’s U.S. retail e-commerce sales estimates show that online retail spending reached $32.9 billion for Q2, up 9 percent versus year ago. This growth rate represented the third consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth following a year of flat or negative growth rates.

Still, it’s too early to be overly excited, comScore warns.

“The second quarter’s continuation of the first quarter’s strong retail e-commerce growth rates is encouraging,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni.

“We remain cautiously optimistic heading into the second half of the year, but we will be keeping a close eye on unemployment rates, which along with potential uncertainty in the stock market could limit growth in e-commerce spending in the near term.”

Other highlights from Q2 2010 include:

• Upper-income households (those earning at least $100,000 annually) grew 17 percent versus year ago, approximately twice the overall e-commerce growth rate during the quarter.
• Among the top-performing online product categories were: Consumer Electronics (excl. PC peripherals), Computer Software (excl. PC games), Computers/Peripherals/PDAs, and Books & Magazines.
• Multi-channel retailers regained e-commerce spending market share versus online pureplay retailers following five consecutive quarters of declining market share.

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• Online retail spending up 14 percent, 5th quarter of double-digit growth
• Good news for Internet retailers: online retail spending up 9 percent

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Tags: comScore, online retail sales rise Q2 2010, Reston, VA