Let the good times roll online

The final holiday numbers are in from online measurement firm comScore and it was a record year. November and December online sales increased 12% to $32.6 billion and, considering the surge in traffic that takes place at Walmart.com during those months and the increasing level of cross-channel integration, the retailer likely captured at least a fair share of the growth.

“This year, retailers targeted many of their promotions even earlier than usual and reaped the benefits,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. “The season will be remembered for an exceptional Cyber Monday, which was the first billion dollar spending day in history, and the first time we’ve witnessed Cyber Monday rank as the heaviest online spending day of the year. And of course, we cannot forget the impact of free shipping, which was used in more than half of all e-commerce transactions this season, up significantly from last year.”

The heaviest online spending days and the amount spent were as follows: