U.S. holiday online spending growth is up. But is yours?

comScore released new figures today showing a 12% increase from last year in holiday spending online [Hat tip to TechCrunch for the news item].

That’s the good news.

But if you’re not one of the top 25 online retailers, the news is noticeably less sunny:

“One trend that has emerged since the beginning of the recession is the shift of online spending dollars towards larger retailers, who typically have greater financial resources to invest in offering the most competitive pricing on goods and services. In fact, growth for the holiday season to date has come almost entirely from the Top 25 online retailers, who have seen their total dollar sales grow 20 percent while overall growth among the small and mid-sized retailers has been flat. The top 25 retailers have gained 4.2 points of market share to a level of 67.8 percent since the 2009 holiday season.” [Emphasis mine]

To me, this looks like an opportunity. Consumers are willing to purchase online; the numbers back that up. Larger online retailers likely are using their strong brands and – as comScore noted above – “greater financial resources” to gain their customers’ trust. But, it doesn’t require greater financial resources (though it doesn’t hurt!) There are a number of things you can do to improve your landing pages and fix the customer experience to improve trust and increase sales.

Or you could just leave it for the big guys. Your call.

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