Last week saw three individual days surpass $1 billion in online spending. The shopping madness was led by Cyber Monday, which set an online spending record of $1.46 billion for just one day.
Tuesday, November 27 reached $1.26 billion in consumer spending on e-commerce entities, while Wednesday, November 28 reached $1.1 billion. Last Monday and Tuesday have set a record of being the two heaviest online spending days in history. Tuesday total was just over what was spent on Cyber Monday in 2011.
comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni said that growth rates actually decreased after the "peak demand" of the Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday period. The analytics firm believes the warmer weather throughout some parts of the United States directed consumers towards in-store shopping instead of purchasing goods online.
As for Black Friday online spending, consumers set a record with $1.042 billion in sales, a 26 percent increase from last year. comScore pointed out that consumers tend to spend more on free shipping transactions, which is certainly true in recent weeks. More than half of e-commerce transactions during each of the past three weeks have included free shipping, with a peak of 57 percent during the week ending on Sunday, November 25.
As far as categories are concerned, digital books, music and video downloads have grown 25 percent compared to the holiday season a year ago. The Consumer Electronics category experienced a growth of 17 percent, predominately due to the strength of smartphone sales.
The Computer Hardware category, meanwhile, increased its sales by 15 percent thanks to the popularity of tablets. Other popular categories includes Toys (up 21 percent), Consumer Packaged Goods (up 18 percent) and Video Game Consoles & Accessories (up 16 percent).
