Online Sales Were Record-Breaking Throughout The Holidays

comScore has a new report out indicating that retail e-commerce spending for November/December reached $37.2 billion. That’s a whopping 15% higher than the same period last year, and an all-time record.

There were actually 10 separate days that surpassed $1 billion in spending. Cyber Monday, at the top of the list, ranked at the top (for the second year in a row) at $1.25 billion.

Here’s a look at growth from last year:

And the sales pattern through the season for the last five years:

“The 2011 online holiday shopping finished with slightly more than $37 billion in spending, up about 15 percent versus year ago,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. “With brick-and-mortar holiday retail estimated to have grown about 4 percent this year, it’s clear that e-commerce continues to gain market share from traditional retail due to the attractiveness of the Internet’s convenience and lower prices.”

“Consumers were especially attracted to the deals and discounts available through digital channels – particularly free shipping, which occurred on well over half of transactions this season,” he added. “Despite their continuing price sensitivity, consumers felt a bit more comfortable opening up their wallets this year, although this appears to have occurred as a result of a decline in the savings rate. Nonetheless, it’s clear that, at least on the basis of top line growth, this was a Merry Christmas for many online retailers. What will remain unknown until retailers report their financial year end results is whether the aggressive pricing and free shipping offers came at the cost of lower margins.”

In case you missed it, this should give you a good idea of the things people have been buying.