Holiday E-Commerce Jumps 22% to $4.7 Billion

A recent study by comScore showed that online holiday spending growth accelerated to 22 percent, reaching $4.7 billion, during the week ending December 16.

More than $23 billion has been spent online during the season-to-date (November 1-December 16), a 19 percent increase versus the corresponding days last year.

“The current –and final – week of online shopping before Christmas will be especially critical to the overall success of the holiday shopping season,” commented comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni.

“We’ll know whether consumers were simply delaying their purchases in the hopes of capturing late-season deals, or if the economic pressures weighing on people’s wallets were actually too strong to overcome, causing sales to fall below analysts’ forecasts.”

The fastest growing online retail category continued to be video games, consoles and accessories, jumping 129 percent versus 2006. The next highest categories were furniture, appliances & equipment (+63 percent), event tickets (+29 percent) and consumer electronics (+24 percent). The study did not list figures for jewelry sales.