Online retail spending declined 3 percent in Q4 2008 compared to last year, reports comScore. Though the overall ecommerce sales grew by 6 percent to $130.1 billion in 2008, the growth is considerably lower than in preceding years.

Retail e-commerce growth in the U.S. has declined in the past two years. Quarterly growth rates had remained in the around of 20 percent in 2007. According to comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni, the financial crises resulted in the first ever negative quarterly growth and “with rising unemployment and continued economic uncertainty, the first few months of the year will be especially critical in foretelling what 2009 has in store for the online retail sector."

comScore is a global Internet information provider and provides consumer behavior analysis for leading companies.