Online sales surge for holidays, rising 31% heading into Christmas week

Non-travel online retail sales rose 31% year-over-year for the week ended Dec. 21, to $1.65 billion from $1.26 billion, comScore Networks reports. By contrast, total retail sales for the week ended Dec. 20 gained 0.2% year-over-year, reports ShopperTrak’s National Retail Sales Estimate.

ComScore notes that the week ended Dec. 21 was the 10th consecutive week of year-over-year gains in non-travel online sales of 20% or more, and that the last two months of this year are on track to hit the high end of comScore’s projected year-over-year online sales gain of 25-30%. Helping to drive the increases are increased shopping activity in non-traditional online sales categories, including high-ticket items in furniture, appliances, jewelry and watches, a spokesman says.

ComScore also notes that online travel sales gained 41% for the week ended Dec. 21, to $746 million from $528 million, causing non-travel sales to decline slightly as a percentage of total online sales, to 68.9% from 70.4%.