Online shopping continues to grow

Published December 18, 2013 by Jessica Sabbath

An increasing number of consumers are doing their holiday shopping online, including the weekends, according to data from comScore.

The Reston-based digital measurement company said online spending from desktop computers since Thanksgiving is $19.2 billion, up 21 percent from last year.

comScore also found that online weekend shopping has grown rapidly. Most online spending occurs during the week when people are at their computers at work. This year, however, weekend online spending has grown 30 percent, while weekday spending has grown between 10 and 16 percent.

Gian Fulgoni, chairman of comScore, suggested in a statement that growth in weekend spending could be because of the shortened holiday shopping season  and that some are hoping to avoid the frenzy of brick-and-mortar stores.

The company also found that for the first time ever, online spending reached above $1 billion on five individual days.