$42.5B spent online so far this holiday season

Consumers are doing even more holiday shopping from their desktop computers this year, according to a new report from comScore.

The Internet analytics company reports that U.S. consumer spending from desktop computers for the first 44 days of the November-December 2014 holiday shopping season is up 15% from last year, to $42.5 billion.

“Any notion that Cyber Monday is declining in importance is really unfounded, as it continues to post new historical highs and reflects the ongoing strength of online this holiday season,” said comScore chairman emeritus Gian Fulgoni. “Varying reports have also indicated weakness in the consumer economy due to flagging brick-and-mortar sales over the holiday weekend, but what we may really be seeing is an accelerating shift to online buying as mobile phones spur increased showrooming activity. The data we’re seeing suggest it may be more a change in shopping behavior than a lack of consumer demand.”

ComScore also reports that for the second consecutive week, all five days of the workweek reached the milestone of at least $1 billion in online desktop sales, marking the first time in history such a feat has been accomplished twice in the same holiday season.

“Despite a slight deceleration in growth rates during this past week, we still observed strong spending in total with five more days surpassing $1 billion in sales to bring us to fourteen for the holiday season to date," Fulgoni said. "While it's not uncommon for the week after Cyber Week to experience a relative lull as retailers pull back on promotions and consumers catch their breath before the final gift buying push, it is encouraging that the 15 percent spending growth rate for the season-to-date remains slightly above our forecast of 14 percent for the season as a whole. We expect early next week to experience one last surge in online buying leading up to Free Shipping Day on December 18th, after which the online holiday shopping season should start winding down."