E-commerce sales in the U.S. fall for the first time since 2001

comScore reported on Thursday that retail e-commerce sales dropped in Q4 by 3 percent, as the dismal economy began to affect the online retail sector. Q4 of 2008 was the first quarter of negative growth since it started tracking spending in 2001 – this drop comes after the double digit gains throughout 2007 and the first half of 2008 in year-to-year ecommerce sales.

Video games, consoles, and accessories are amongst the 2007 winners in e-commerce: 29% year to year increases in sales. Concerning homes, garden, and furniture increase, it made up 25%, sports and fitness - 25% as well.

Computer software appeared to be on the losing end dropped by 18% in spending, and music, movies and videos saw 23% drop in online sales