Budgets/Spending/Market Size

Reston, Va. -- Shoppers spent 14% more for online holiday spending during the week ending Dec. 18, according to comScore. Online spending totaled $6.4 billion for the week, making it the busiest week ever in online holiday shopping.

Shoppers have spent almost $32 billion online for the holiday season to date, a 15% increase from a year ago, comScore reported. The period includes the first 48 days of the holiday season spanning the months of November and December, according to comScore.

San Francisco -- A new survey conducted this past weekend by Visa Inc. shows that 77% of consumers still need to buy holiday gifts this week. These last-minute shoppers will spend an average of $278 in the final days leading up to Christmas and Hanukkah.

Bethesda, Md. -- IBM on Monday released its Benchmark projection for online sales for the month of December, showing that online sales are expected to grow by 9.5% to 10% year-over-year.

For the week of Dec. 11, the report showed that online sales rose 10.8% over the same week in 2010. Mobile traffic increased to 12.1% of all online retailing sessions, compared with 5% over the same week last year and reflecting a 143.9% increase.

Reston, Va. -- Following recent e-commerce trends released by comScore, online spending continues to grow at a consistent 15% rate. As reported earlier, holiday e-commerce spending rose 15% year-over-year to $26.8 billion for the first 42 days of the shopping season, through Dec. 12.

And on Sunday, comScore released its latest findings, that online sales surpassed $1 billion on four days during the work week of December 12-16, a 15% increase over the same period last year.

WASHINGTON — AAA forecasts 91.9 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home during the 2011-2012 year-end holiday travel season, a 1.4% increase over the 90.7 million people who traveled one year ago, the travel organization announced earlier this week. This year’s expected year-end holiday travel volume is the second-highest in the past decade and represents 30% of the total U.S. population.

SEATTLE — E-readers continue to be a popular gift choice this holiday season, with Amazon.com reporting that for the third week in a row, customers are purchasing more than one million Kindle devices per week. Among its Kindle offerings, the latest, Kindle Fire, remains the most sought-after product on Amazon.com. since it was introduced 11 weeks ago.

WASHINGTON — The National Retail Federation is putting its faith in the holidays by upgrading its spending forecast for the season.

After initially anticipating sales growth of 2.8%, the NRF said it now expects holiday sales to rise 3.8% to $469.1 billion. The projection may be lower than the 5.2% increase the retail industry saw last year, but the group said a number of factors, such as strong year-over-year sales and the fact that not all consumers have completed their holiday shopping lists, could provide the industry with a great gift after all.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The National Retail Federation said Thursday that it has upwardly revised its holiday forecast, now expecting holiday sales to rise 3.8% this year to a record $469.1 billion. 

NRF’s initial forecast, announced on October 6, called for anticipated sales growth of 2.8%. While a 3.8% sales increase is considerably above the 10-year average sales increase of 2.6%, it is still lower than the 5.2% increase the retail industry saw last year, said NRF.

RESTON, Va. -- Data released Wednesday by comScore showed that holiday season retail e-commerce spending for the first 42 days of the 2011 holiday season is up 15% year-over-year. Through “Green Monday,” Dec. 12, $26.8 billion has been spent online.

The most recent week (week ending Dec. 11) reached a record $6.1 billion in spending, in line with the season-to-date’s 15% growth rate, according to the report.    

CHICAGO — A new report by ShopperTrak found that sales continue to rise despite flat year-over-year figures.

Sales for the week ended Dec. 10 rose 10.6% above the prior week, while year-over-year sales saw a decline of 1.9%. The drop, which followed a 0.2% year-over-year increase during the week ended Dec. 3, is not an indication that holiday sales will be dismal this year; the firm suggested that it may have been caused by the shifting dates of Hanukkah — moving from Dec. 1 in 2010 to Dec. 20 this year.