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The total amount consumers will spend shopping online this holiday season likely will be slightly lower than last year, but consumers this year are spending more heavily late in the season, new figures from comScore Inc. suggest. Holiday shoppers spent $24 billion online from Nov. 1 through Dec. 19, a decrease of nearly 1% compared with $24.2 billion spent during the same period last year. However, online shoppers have spent slightly more so far during December than last year, hitting a total of $12.8 billion between Dec. 1 and Dec. 19 compared with $12.7 billion for the same period last year. And the average amount consumers spent each day from Thanksgiving through Dec. 19 is up 4.6%, to $643 million compared with $615 million last year. But overall online spending for the holiday season likely will be lower than last year's total because there are five fewer shopping days this year between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and holiday shopping got off to a slow start because of the depressed economy, comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni said in a statement. The heaviest day for online shopping this year was Dec. 9, when spending reached $887 million; the second-heaviest online-shopping day was Dec. 15, when spending reached $859 million, ComScore reports. Top-selling merchandise categories so far this year are sports and fitness followed by books and magazines, videogames, consoles and accessories and apparel.
