Ho, Ho, Ho online

comScore, a company that measures the digital world, on Wednesday (Jan. 5) reported that retail e-commerce spending for the entire November – December 2010 holiday season reached $32.6 billion, a 12% increase compared to the 2009 period and an all-time record for the season.

"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," comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni said in a statement. "We saw spending increase at a rate of 12 percent for the season, outpacing our forecasted 11-percent growth, and set a new holiday season record as total e-commerce spending reached $32.6 billion.”

Following are a few points of interest from the comScore report.
• This year, retailers targeted many of their promotions even earlier than usual and reaped the benefits.

• The season will be remembered for an exceptional Cyber Monday (Nov. 29), which was the first billion-dollar spending day in history, and the first time Cyber Monday ranked as the heaviest online spending day of the year.

• Free shipping was used in more than half of all e-commerce transactions this season, up significantly from 2009.

• For the first time since comScore began tracking e-commerce activity in 2001, Cyber Monday ranked as the heaviest online spending day of the year at $1.028 billion. It also registers as the first online spending day on record to surpass the $1 billion spending threshold.

• Green Monday (Dec. 13) ranked as the second heaviest day at $954 million, followed by Monday, Dec. 6 at $943 million.

• Free Shipping Day (Friday, Dec. 17) ranked fourth at $942 million, while Thursday, Dec. 16 rounded out the top five with $930 million.

• Eight days in total surpassed $900 million in spending this holiday season.