E-tailers have laggards and penny-pinchers to thank for last week's brisk sales, which grew 25 percent over the comparable period last year, according to comScore.
Procrastinators and deal-seekers helped create a "flurry" of online spending last week in the U.S., keeping retail e-sales strong, comScore said Sunday.
Between Nov. 1 and Dec. 21 -- the first 51 days of the holiday season -- U.S. shoppers have spent US$26.3 billion online, up 19 percent compared with the corresponding period last year.
So far, the heaviest online shopping day this season was Dec. 10, the so-called "Green Monday," a term coined by eBay for the second Monday in December, which the vendor has identified as particularly heavy e-sales day. U.S. shoppers spent $881 million that day, up 33 percent from the corresponding day in 2006.
By contrast, Cyber Monday, the first workday after the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S., ranks as this holiday season's ninth heaviest online shopping day, with $733 million in sales. Cyber Monday is considered the day when holiday online shopping kicks into high gear.
Overall, comScore expects this year's holiday season to generate about $29.5 billion in online spending, which would represent a 20 percent increase from the same period in 2006.
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