Online sales in the first quarter grew by nearly 50 percent over last year to $17 billion, powered by a rebound in travel-related sales, Web research firm comScore Networks said on Friday, according to Reuters.
Internet commerce was even higher than the record-setting fourth quarter, rising 8 percent over the $15.8 billion fueled by holiday shopping, comScore Vice President Dan Hess told Reuters in an interview.
ComScore collects data from more than 1.5 million people worldwide who have given comScore, Reston, VA company permission to track their behavior online.
The latest data covers online sales from U.S.-based Web sites, excluding Internet auctions.
Travel, which fell 13 percent in the fourth quarter last year after the Sept. 11 attacks, rebounded in the first three months of this year to hit $6.98 billion, a rise of 87 percent from a year earlier. The sales were up 39 percent from the fourth quarter and about 22 percent from the pre-attack third quarter, Reuters reported.
