Online holiday spending increases 19%

As of December 27th, online holiday spending for 2007 had reached more than $27.9 billion, in increase of 19% over 2006 and an indication that more consumers are logging on more often to shop.

by Kristina Knight

Part of the increase could be because there was an extra day for shoppers in 2007; there were 31 shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas in 2006 but 32 days between the holidays in 2007. The single-biggest shopping day online was December 10th when more than $880 million was spent.

“Even as the holiday shopping season winds down after Christmas, we continue to see some relatively strong online spending days,” said comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni. “For example, the day after Christmas saw online sales of $545 million, more than double the sales on the same day last year. This would appear to indicate that consumers were willing, and able, to take advantage of the attractive late-season promotions and price discounts offered by retailers this year.”

These late season discounts were a huge help because the beginning of November was slow for etailers, most likely because of unseasonably warm temperatures in most of the United States. Once the weather changed, however, the shoppers logged on to spend their cash.