Are Online Holiday Sales Up Enough?

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By Chris Lange Published
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For the season to date, $48.3 billion has been spent online in the United States, according to comScore, a leader in measuring sales in the digital world. Its holiday online sales report tracks the spending from desktop computers for the first 51 days of the November-December 2014 season, and it showed a 15% increase from the same period in the previous year.

During the week of December 15 to 21, there was 18% growth in online sales, which translates to $5.8 billion in desktop spending. In the last full week before Christmas, the first two days recorded over $1 billion each, while Free Shipping Day (December 18) had $926 million in desktop spending.

A few notable days from the report with corresponding numbers:

  • Thanksgiving Day recorded an increase of 32% to $1.01 billion.
  • Black Friday recorded an increase of 26% to $1.51 billion.
  • Cyber Monday recorded an increase of 17% to $2.04 billion.
  • Most Recent Weekend (December 20 to 21) recorded an increase of 36% to $972 million.

comScore Chairman Emeritus Gian Fulgoni said:

This final week of online holiday shopping before Christmas was very strong, finishing off the season on a high note and virtually guaranteeing e-commerce spending will outperform our pre-season forecast. We are now running at a 15% growth rate in desktop e-commerce for the season, which should be taken as a very positive sign for the economic health of both the American consumer and the e-commerce channel as a whole. While the heaviest spending days of the season are now behind us, there is still about another $5 billion that will be spent over the balance of the year that will get us to new all-time highs for e-commerce.

Looking over the course of the years, there is a definite positive trend in online spending as time goes on.

ALSO READ: Walmart’s Last-Minute Christmas Specials

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About the Author Chris Lange →

Chris Lange is a writer for 24/7 Wall St., based in Houston. He has covered financial markets over the past decade with an emphasis on healthcare, tech, and IPOs. During this time, he has published thousands of articles with insightful analysis across these complex fields. Currently, Lange's focus is on military and geopolitical topics.

Lange's work has been quoted or mentioned in Forbes, The New York Times, Business Insider, USA Today, MSN, Yahoo, The Verge, Vice, The Intelligencer, Quartz, Nasdaq, The Motley Fool, Fox Business, International Business Times, The Street, Seeking Alpha, Barron’s, Benzinga, and many other major publications.

A graduate of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Lange majored in business with a particular focus on investments. He has previous experience in the banking industry and startups.

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