Online sales set another new record

Americans’ appetite for e-commerce grew again in 2014 with holiday sales slightly exceeding an optimistic forecast by digital measurement firm comScore.



Total desktop online sales for the entire November through December holiday season advanced 15 percent to $53.3 billion, comScore said. Cyber Monday retained its crown as the highest volume day with e-commerce spending of more than $2 billion.



"The 2014 online holiday shopping season was very strong overall as spending slightly exceeded our fairly optimistic forecast heading into the season," said comScore chairman emeritus Gian Fulgoni. "Despite a shortened holiday calendar between Thanksgiving and Christmas and erroneous reports of flagging holiday sales, the American consumer proved resilient and flexed their spending muscle online this year.”



Fulgoni attributed the strength to increasing positive consumer sentiment, improving job growth and declining gas prices which created a more favorable spending environment. As a result, consumers opened their wallets in a way they hadn't since before the financial crisis.



“In the end, we saw growth rates in the mid-double digits as the online channel continued to gain meaningful share from brick-and-mortar,” Fulgoni said.



Cyber Monday (Dec. 1), for the fifth consecutive year, ranked as the heaviest online buying day with slightly more than $2 billion in desktop spending. The day after Cyber Monday ranked second for the season at $1.796 billion, followed by Green Monday (Dec. 8) with $1.615 billion and Black Friday with $1.505 billion. For the entire season fifteen individual days exceeded $1 billion in online spending via desktop, a significant increase from ten the previous year.