U.S. E-commerce Spending Up 15% on Year to $42.5B

(IDEX Online) – Digital sales tracking firm comScore reported that holiday season U.S. retail e-commerce spending from desktop computers for the first 44 days of the November-December 2014 holiday season jumped 15 percent on the year to $42.5 billion.

The most recent week beginning with Green Monday (December 8) posted strong growth in online sales, taking in $8.6 billion in desktop spending, up 12 percent versus year ago, the firm said.

For the second consecutive week, all five days of the work week reached the milestone of at least $1 billion in online desktop sales, marking the first time in history such a feat had been accomplished twice in the same holiday season.

"Despite a slight deceleration in growth rates during this past week, we still observed strong spending in total with five more days surpassing $1 billion in sales to bring us to fourteen for the holiday season to date," said comScore chairman emeritus Gian Fulgoni.

"While it's not uncommon for the week after Cyber Week to experience a relative lull as retailers pull back on promotions and consumers catch their breath before the final gift buying push, it is encouraging that the 15 percent spending growth rate for the season-to-date remains slightly above our forecast of 14 percent for the season as a whole.

"We expect early next week to experience one last surge in online buying leading up to Free Shipping Day on December 18, after which the online holiday shopping season should start winding down."