MINNEAPOLIS _ While Target.com still lags behind Amazon in many areas online, a data firm says the Minneapolis-based retailer has surpassed the online juggernaut in at least one way: online sales growth during the week of Black Friday.
Slice Intelligence, which mines e-receipts for data on online sales, said Target was one of the big winners online of the Black Friday week starting the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and ending Cyber Monday.
Slice said Target's online sales rose 44 percent from the comparable shopping period last year, outpacing Amazon's growth. Other retailers that also posted big online sales growth during the week included Best Buy, Apple, Wal-Mart, and Amazon. Growth of those companies' sales was 19 to 25 percent.
The data reflect the investments Target has been making to improve its website over the past couple of years. The retailer has been playing catch-up to others, with online sales still totaling less than 5 percent of its overall sales compared with Best Buy, with about 13 percent of its U.S. sales online.
Amazon's online sales still far eclipse those of other retailers.
"In terms of volume, no one can touch Amazon, whose sales were nearly (four times) those of its closest Cyber Week competitor, Best Buy," Slice Intelligence wrote in a blog post.
Amazon said overall online sales grew 18 percent during the first week of the holiday shopping season.
