Report: Ecommerce tops $43b in Q2 2012

That marks the 6th quarter of double-digit increases. The top selling categories for online shoppers included Digital Content & Subscriptions, Consumer Electronics and Flowers; nearly half of online transactions included free shipping.

"Although e-commerce remains strong, we are taking a cautious view of the second half of the year in light of some renewed signs of economic uncertainty and a stubbornly high unemployment rate," said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. "In fact, consumer perception of the economy has recently deteriorated, with 56% now viewing economic conditions as poor, up from a level of 49% three months ago. So, even as commerce increasingly shifts to the online channel, any significant future pullback in overall consumer spending could dampen the strong double-digit growth rates we've been experiencing for the year-to-date."

Meanwhile data from Monetate indicates more purchases are being more highly influenced by traditional online mediums - email and search - than by new areas like social media. In fact, social media pushes more than $26 less per transaction than search-influenced purchases and about $20 less than email influenced purchases.

As for how online buyers are engaging, when it comes to tablets most are still shopping via Apple devices, including Mac-based computers, than Android or Windows-based PCs. Internet Explorer is still sending the most traffic to retail sites, but their hold on the sphere has dropped about 10% since 2011 while traffic from Safari browsers has increased just over 9% in the same time period.

Tags: comScore, ecommerce, ecommerce trends, Monetate, online shopping, retail spending