Posted on: Saturday, January 5, 2002

Hawai'i 17th per capita in holiday online sales

By Greg Wiles
Bloomberg News Service

Hawai'i shoppers hit the Internet for holiday purchases, pushing the state to 17th highest in the nation in per capita online sales, according to a report.

Hawai'i registered spending of $25.08 per person during the holidays, according to BizRate.com Inc., which surveys spending at 2,000 online merchants.

Still, shoppers in colder-weather states were more likely to make purchases on the Internet during the holiday season, while those in warmer-weather states were less likely, according to the report.

Alaska led the nation in sales per person at $43.99, while Mississippi was last at $9.68 per person, according to the report. Alaska generated 0.31 Internet orders for every resident, while Mississippi had about 0.1 orders for every resident.

Retailing experts have long acknowledged a link between weather and shopping at traditional stores, and some of the holiday seasons' poor winter coat sales were blamed on warm weather in November and early December.

Internet sales also appear linked to climate, said BizRate.com, which reported Web sales between Nov. 19 and Dec. 26 rose to $6.57 billion, or 36 percent, from the year-earlier period.

Other top states in terms of sales per capita were in the northeast United States and included New Hampshire with $37.60 per person, Connecticut ($35.37), Vermont ($33.68) and Massachusetts ($33.38), BizRate .com said.

Joining Mississippi, states with low Internet shopping were in the South and included Louisiana at $11.46 per person, South Carolina ($12.69), Kentucky ($13) and Alabama ($13.20).

Among highly populated states, New York ranked 16th highest at $25.42 per capita while California was 22nd at $23.27. Illinois ranked 24th at $22.87. Texas was 33rd with spending of $21.36 per person.

Florida was No. 43 with spending of $16.02 per capita.