CHART CLOSE-UP FROM THE STORY:
Strongest Week - $4B Worth - in Holiday E-Commerce Sales so Far »
scroll down to read the full story

Strongest Week - $4B Worth - in Holiday E-Commerce Sales so Far

More than $13.4 billion has been spent online during the holiday season to date, marking an 18% gain versus the corresponding days last year, with the most recent week’s spending surpassing the $4 billion mark, comScore reported.

The heaviest online spending day of the season thus far was Cyber Monday (Nov. 26) with $733 million in sales, marginally higher than sales on Thursday, Nov. 29, according to comScore’s update of holiday season e-commerce spending covering the first 30 days of the November - December 2007 holiday season.
 

“This most recent week saw several very strong days for online retail spending,” said comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni. “Beginning with a record $733 million on Cyber Monday, each of the next three days also surpassed $700 million in sales, resulting in more than $4 billion in online spending during the week.”

Top retail sites and categories since Cyber Monday:

• The fastest-growing retail sites since Cyber Monday compared with the corresponding days last year (within the top 20 most frequently visited retail sites) were Yahoo Shopping, Target, Apple, Circuit City and Toys “R” Us.
• Some traditionally popular product categories for holiday gifts had strong growth in dollar sales versus last year: video games, consoles and accessories (+170%), toys (+36%), computer hardware (+21%), sports and fitness (+19%).

Most Online Holiday Shopping Occurs at Work

Cyber Monday has been the first significant spike in online holiday spending because it is the first working day after the Thanksgiving holiday, and shopping from work remains a key component of total online shopping behavior.

For the first 30 days of the holiday season, 45.5% of all online retail spending came from work locations, edging out the 44.1% of spending from home.
 
“[D]espite the declining value of the US dollar, the share of spending from international locations dropped versus last year,” Fulgoni said. “This would appear to indicate that maturing international e-commerce markets are succeeding in keeping more foreign online spending overseas.”