Online shoppers hit the "buy" buttons in droves last week, surpassing all past weekly sales tallies.
During the one-week period ended Dec. 18, online retail shoppers spent a record $6.3 billion. On four days of that week, the single-day e-commerce tally surpassed $1 billion dollars, according to web watcher comScore.
So far this season, consumers have spent nearly $32 billion online, which is a 15% increase compared to the corresponding days of last year's November-December holiday season. The volume of sales is expected to slow as the holidays draw near and shoppers head for the malls.
"With only a few more days until Christmas, the preponderance of Americans' late season holiday shopping will shift to brick-and-mortar retail, although the procrastinators among us will still be able to take advantage of expedited shipping and buy online up to and including the day before Christmas Eve with the guarantee of having their gifts delivered in time for the holiday," said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni in a statement.
Looking ahead, comScore expects to see another $5 billion or $6 billion in e-commerce spending during the remainder of December.
MORE HOLIDAY E-COMMERCE COVERAGE:
Shopping at work? More CIOs say it's not allowed
Shoppers with iPads spend bigger bucks
Cyber Monday outlook:$1 billion in sales expected
Black Friday:Heavy online shopping took a toll on website performance
Mobile shoppers help drive online sales surge
Ann Bednarz covers IT careers, outsourcing and Internet culture for Network World. Follow Ann on Twitter at@annbednarzand check out her blog,Occupational Hazards. Her e-mail address isabednarz@nww.com.