Citing comScore's updated report on spending on the Internet from Nov. 1-Dec. 9, marketingcharts.com reported an 18 percent gain over last year during the same days as last year.
So far spending has reached $19 billion over that 39-day period, while on December 6, an all-time record of $803 million was recorded, an increase of 28 percent over the same day last year. That record is for online spending, not all spending.
For the actual week ending on December 9, online spending reached $4.6 billion, the biggest week so far this season, and up 20 percent over last year.
“Consumers seemingly restrained their early November holiday spending in the hopes of catching some attractive late-season deals, so we expect that the current week will outperform the past week as the heaviest of the season,” said comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni.
Interestingly, over 50 percent of all spending online this year has occurred from work, between the hours of 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM. Spending was especially strong during the 12:00 PM to 3:00 PM hours. Some of that I'm sure is related to buying during the lunch hour.
Consumer electronics are a real strong performer as always during the season, but this week they exploded, with sales up by 43 percent. Usual growth, in contrast, is 23 percent for the overall season.
Other strong performers last week were tickets for events, growing by 70 percent over the week before, and apparel, which increased by 22 percent last week, outpacing the 16 percent rate for the season so far.
Toy sales on the other hand were week, growing by only 3 percent, dropping the sluggish increase to only 14 percent. Some of that is probably due to the toy recalls and bad press during the year.
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