WebProNews

Online holiday retail spending has slowed slightly, but remains relatively solid according, to a new report from comScore.

For the holiday season through December 12, $19.44 billion has been spent online, about the same amount as last year. For the twelve days beginning with December 1 (Cyber Monday), the kick-off to the heaviest part of the online shopping season, sales totaled $8.26 billion up 3 percent compared to a year ago.

The most recent work week (December 8-12) saw ecommerce sales slip slightly by a marginal 1 percent, although Tuesday, December 9 was the heaviest online spending day on record with $887 million in sales.

"After a very strong first week of December, e-commerce sales growth slowed somewhat during the most recent week," said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. "However, the week still managed to see a few particularly strong spending days, with sales of $887 million on Tuesday, December 9 surpassing Green Monday last year (December 10, 2007) as the heaviest online spending day on record."

"With Christmas now fast approaching, look for online retailers to continue to offer enticing last-minute deals, including discounts on expedited shipping, to spur a final wave of spending. In fact, some retailers are even willing to offer free shipping as late as December 18 this year with a guarantee that the shipment will arrive by Christmas Eve. It will be interesting to see the impact that this offer has in terms of pulling additional spending from retail stores to the online channel."

The fastest growing product categories from December 1 through December 12 were apparel & accessories (up21 percent, trailed by books & magazines (up 18 percent), and flowers, greetings & gift (up 18 percent).

Apparel & accessories, the second largest online retail category buy dollar sales, has seen sales growth because of large discounts and unseasonably cold weather in many parts of the country.