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As we get closer to the Christmas holidays, online retail spending continues to soar, says data and web analytics company comScore. A total of $6.3 billion was spent online in the past week, bringing the total spending for the holiday season to $30.9 billion. That’s a 15 percent increase versus the same period last year.

In the past week, four individual days surpassed $1 billion in spending, led by Green Monday (Monday, Dec. 12) with $1.13 billion and Free Shipping Day (Friday, Dec. 16) with $1.07 billion.

The term “Green Monday” was coined by eBay in 2007 to describe the Monday occurring around the second week of December, which has tended to be the heaviest online spending days of the year, as it is one of the last days of the week where consumers can purchase and still receive shipping by the holidays. Over the past six holiday shopping seasons, “Green Monday” has consistently ranked among the top spending days of the season. Free Shipping Day is a marketing event that takes place Friday, December 16, and is also one of the last days when merchants offer free shipping with delivery by Christmas Eve.

While these days didn’t bring in as much as Cyber Monday ($1.25 billion), this has been the heaviest spending week to date. And comScore says this will most probably be the peak spending period for online shoppers, as spending usually tapers off this week as Christmas approaches and more consumers flock to brick and mortar stores for last-minute gifts.

One trend comScore highlights in the report is that deals such as discounts and free shipping were ‘frontloaded’ at the earlier part of the holiday shopping season this year compared to last year. The highest growth rates in purchasing in the time period between Thanksgiving and this past Friday took place during the days nearer to Thanksgiving. Growth rates for earlier dates remained in the mid-20s, with more modest growth rates in the teens in the middle part of December.

For example, Black Friday and Cyber Monday saw a 25 and 27 percent increase in sales, respectively, from the previous year. Monday Dec. 12, and Friday, Dec. 16 saw a 19 and 14 percent increase in sales, respectively.

And there’s no doubt that free shipping has been a huge incentive for online retailers this holiday shopping season. Each week of the online holiday season-to-date has seen free shipping occur on at least half of all transactions. During the week of Thanksgiving and Cyber Week, at least 3 in 5 transactions used free shipping.

For this past week, the percentage of transactions with free shipping reached 56 percent, nearly 4 percentage points higher than the same period last year. And retailers like Amazon have been extending free shipping deadlines well past “free shipping day,” which should help increase the number of purchases using the offer.

While we’ll probably see growth rates in spending and total sales spent online drop in the next few weeks, we could witness a surge in spending, weather permitting, post-Christmas. Last year, a blizzard in the Northeast U.S. region helped contribute to a surge online spending for the pre-New Year’s period to record levels.

U.S. online holiday spending is holding strong, with e-commerce sales reaching $25 billion, up 15 percent from a year ago.

Market research firm comScore said that spending for the first 39 days of the November-December selling season were $24.6 billion. The most recent week ending Dec. 9 reached $5.9 billion, up 15 percent from the corresponding week a year ago.

Last week saw three days of sales each exceeding $1 billion in sales. For the whole season, six days have exceeded $1 billion in sales, including the record-setting $1.25 billion for Cyber Monday on Nov. 28.

Commenting on the sales, comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni said, “These highlights represent another very positive sign for the holiday shopping season, as the week following ‘Cyber Week’ often experiences relative softness in spending momentum due to retailers pulling back on their promotional activity.”

He added, “As we enter what will be the heaviest week of the season for online retailers – beginning with ‘Green Monday’ on December 12 – all signs are now pointing to a strong finish to the season.”

[image credit: LeapGo]

Filed under: VentureBeat

comScore just released its U.S. online holiday spending numbers for the season to-date, and as predicted, consumers continued to spend online in record amounts. For the first 39 days of the November to December 2011 holiday season, $24.6 billion has been spent online, which is a 15 percent increase compared to the same days last year.

The most recent week ending Dec. 9 reached $5.9 billion in spending, up 15 percent with 3 days surpassing $1 billion in spending. For the holiday season-to-date, six individual days have surpassed the billion dollar threshold, led by Cyber Monday at $1.25 billion.

To put this in perspective, seven individual shopping days have surpassed $1 billion in spending, and the majority of these took place this year. Cyber Monday 2011 leads with $1.25 billion in sales, and Monday, December 5, 2011 now ranks as the second heaviest spending day in history at $1.18 billion.

So why are so many people flocking online? It’s partly due to more emphasis on coupons and deals as well as an increased amount of free shipping offers by retailers. Another interesting factor to consider is how much mobile helped contribute to this year’s surge in online spending. More and more consumers are using price comparison apps, and making purchases on their mobile phones both from their couches, desks and from inside brick and mortar stores. E-commerce companies are quickly catching on to this trend, and are even offering strong incentives (i.e. Amazon) to use and buy via mobile apps.

And there are still more big spending days on the horizon.

Tomorrow brings Green Monday. The term “Green Monday” was coined by eBay in 2007 to describe the Monday occurring around the second week of December, which has tended to be the heaviest online spending days of the year, as it is one of the last days of the week where consumers can purchase and still receive shipping by the holidays. Over the past six holiday shopping seasons, “Green Monday” has consistently ranked among the top spending days of the season.

Free Shipping day is also this week, which is a marketing event that takes place Friday, December 16, and is also one of the last days when merchants offer free shipping with delivery by Christmas Eve. comScore says that in past years Free Shipping Day has helped boost online spending activity later into the season. Last year’s Free Shipping Day, for example, was the third heaviest online spending day of the year at $942 million, a 61 percent increase from 2009.

With more spending on the horizon, clearly e-retailers are in for a very merry holiday season.