U.S. retail e-commerce growth rates rebounded slightly in April (up 15 percent) after a soft March, but slowed again in May (up 12 percent) and June (up 11 percent), compared with the same periods last year, according to ComScore Inc.

Nonetheless, total U.S. online retail sales (excluding travel) reached approximately $31 billion in the second quarter of 2008.

“With the first round of the government's economic stimulus checks having been mailed in early May, one would have hoped they would have bolstered online spending in May and June,” ComScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni said in a media release issued on Thursday. “However, recent ComScore research reveals that fully two thirds of consumers said they had not planned to spend their stimulus checks and rather intended to use the cash to pay off debt or put the money into savings.”

In addition, Fulgoni said, it's likely the impact of the economic-stimulus checks might have been felt more in brick-and-mortar stores, where a variety of retailers made it easy for consumers to cash their checks.

Moreover, categories such as flowers, greetings and miscellaneous gifts (down 10 percent), jewelry and watches (down 10 percent), computers, peripherals and PDAs (down 11 percent), toys and hobbies (down 11 percent), and music, movies and videos (down 20 percent), all experienced declines versus last year.

Source: Couture International Jeweler / National Jeweler

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