Online Holiday Shopping Up 15.4 Percent

Posted 12/27/2010 at 8:57am | by Paul Lilly

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The bean counters over at Mastercard tallied up all the receipts and determined that eCommerce sales for the entire holiday shopping season -- October 31 to December 24 -- outpaced last year's figures by 15.4 percent.

"Today eCommerce accounts for a much larger share of overall retail sales compared to a few years ago. And during this holiday season, it registered double digit growth for 6 out of 7 weeks," noted Michael McNamara, Vice President, for MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse. "In terms of sub-categories, apparel was the clear leader, helping increase the channel’s overall lift. In terms of share, online apparel sales during the holiday season accounted for 18.8 percent of total sales in that category, compared to 16.9 percent in 2009. As for some of the other sub-sectors, online electronics, not surprisingly, also recorded significant gains, while Jewelry, although still in positive territory, lagged behind."

Online shoppers bought $36.4 billion worth of goods this holiday shopping season, highlighted by 6 days that surpassed $1 billion in sales, compared with 3 days in 2009, according to Mastercard.