Report: Holiday online spending up 4%

New York City Holiday e-commerce spending for the first 43 days of the November --December 2009 holiday season totaled nearly $21 billion, marking a 4% increase versus the corresponding days last year, according to comScore.

The most recent week ending Dec. 13 reached $4.74 billion in spending, ranking as the heaviest online spending week on record. The previous high of $4.70 billion occurred during the week ending December 16, 2007.

This most recent week began with five consecutive strong online spending days surpassing $700 million, followed by a fairly upbeat weekend," said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. "Six weeks into the online holiday shopping season and with a cumulative growth rate of 4%, we are tracking slightly above our forecast of a 3% growth rate versus year ago, which appears to be partially attributable to continued heavy promotional activity among retailers.”