Online sales volume grew 48% year-to-year last week, BizRate says

Dollar volume of online sales last week grew an impressive 48% over the same week of last year, BizRate.com reported today. Consumers spent $873.5 million online for the week that ended Feb. 16 vs. $591.9 million for the comparable week last year.

Total orders grew 31% to 6.24 million from 4.78 million a year earlier. Average ticket also grew smartly to $140 from $123.81 a year earlier.

Shopping patterns this year repeated the well established patterns developed over the past couple of years: From lows on Saturday and Sunday, shopping shoots up on Monday, stay strong through Wednesday, then tapers back down on Thursday and Friday.

BizRate monitors traffic at 2,000 sites where it has quality assurance contracts and operates an online shopping comparison service.