Gaming drives online shopping habits

In the past few weeks ecommerce has gotten a helpful bump from a somewhat surprising sector: video games. According to a recent report from comScore, video games are increasingly driving shoppers online.

by Kristina Knight

Gian Fulgoni, chairman of comScore said, “After posting 17 percent growth versus year ago in Q1, retail e-commerce sales grew 23 percent year-over-year in Q2, matching the growth rates we’ve seen during the past couple of years.”

Video games, gaming consoles and accessories are a major factor in the YoY growth, showing more than 155% growth from Q2 2006 and Q2 2007. The closest competitor for online shoppers was the Sports & Fitness category, which showed roughly 58% growth YoY.

The release of Nintendo's Wii and the Playstation 3 consoles over the Christmas holidays is still a huge force for the gaming community. With many families and individuals not able to buy the console or games for the holidays, retailers and ecommerce hubs are still rushing to catch up with the demand.

With the year only about half over, e-tailers are hoping the surge continues through the holiday season. Researchers believe online shopping will reach $200 billion this year, however, with the surge in Q2 some say it is possible that $200 billion is a low estimate and that online retailing will surpass that number when the holiday shopping season officially starts in November.