According to market research firm comScore, retail e-commerce spending for the first 44 days of the November/December 2012 holiday season was $33.8 billion, a 13% increase versus the corresponding stretch last year. The most recent workweek saw four days eclipse $1 billion in spending, led by Green Monday, a week after Cyber Monday, when $1.28 billion changed hands. 

In the 2012 holiday season-to-date, comScore said, 11 individual days surpassed $1 billion in online retail sales. The number already beat last year’s full-season record of 10 shopping days. Cyber Monday, November 26 not only ranks as the heaviest online spending day of the season, at $1.47 billion, but also in history, comScore related. Tuesday, December 4 ranks second in the current season with $1.36 billion, followed by Monday, December 10, 2012, now referred to as Green Monday with $1.275 billion. They now stand as the three biggest online sales dates in history with Tuesday, December 4 coming in as the fourth biggest retail web spend date at $1.26 billion.

 “This past workweek saw four days surpass the billion dollar spending threshold during the heaviest five-day online shopping period on record,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. “With this most recent week in the books, the peak spending period may now be in our rear-view-mirror, but the online holiday shopping season is not over yet. We should have one more headline day on Free Shipping Day, Monday, December 17 as the procrastinators among us scramble to order gifts in time for Christmas next week. For the season-to-date, the growth rate based on corresponding days last year is 13%. But, with two extra shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, we still expect that the full season will realize a growth rate well north of 13%.”