Retail e-commerce spending for the November–December 2010 holiday season reached $32.6 billion, marking a 12-percent increase versus last year and an all-time record for the season, according to comScore Inc.
“The 2010 online holiday shopping season was a memorable one in which we saw spending rebound strongly from the recession of 2008 and 2009, and slightly exceed even our early expectations,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. “We saw spending increase at a rate of 12 percent for the season, outpacing our forecasted 11-percent growth…. This year, retailers targeted many of their promotions even earlier than usual and reaped the benefits.”
For the first time since comScore began tracking e-commerce activity in 2001, Cyber Monday (Monday, Nov. 29) ranked as the heaviest online spending day of the year at $1.028 billion. Cyber Monday is a marketing promotion created in 2005 by Shop.org, a digital retail association. It is the first Monday after Thanksgiving. It also registers as the first online spending day on record to surpass the $1 billion spending threshold.
Green Monday (Monday, Dec. 13) ranked as the second heaviest day at $954 million. Green Monday is an online retail industry term created by eBay to describe the best sales day in December. ComScore defines it as the Monday with at least 10 days prior to Christmas.
Next largest spending day was Monday, December 6 at $943 million. Free Shipping Day (Friday, Dec. 17) ranked fourth at $942 million, while Thursday, December 16 rounded out the top five with $930 million. Eight days in total surpassed $900 million in spending this holiday
ComScore, Inc., Reston, Va., measures and analyzes digital data.