The 2010 holiday season has been declared a cyber success. According to online measurement company ComScore, ecommerce sales rose 13% to $30.81 billion, up from $27.37 in the 2009 holiday season.
The season began and ended on strong notes, as both Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Week sales were solid. Online sales during the final week of the holiday season were $2.45 billion, up 17% from $2.1 billion the same week last year. Thanksgiving Day sales soared 28% over last Thanksgiving to $407 million.
Cyber Monday sales reached $1.03 billion, up 16% from last year, and sales on Free Shipping Day (Dec. 17) was $942 million, up 61% from last year.
Free Shipping Day, a one-day event started by FreeShipping.org founder Luke Knowles in 2008 to spark ecommerce awareness, saw merchant participation jump from 750 merchants in 2009 to 1,750 this year.
Computer hardware ranks as the top growing category for the holiday season to date with a 23% increase versus last year. Purchases of handheld devices (such as Apple iPads and e-readers) and laptop computers have driven much of the category growth.
Books and magazines ranks second with 22% growth, followed by consumer electronics (up 21%), computer software excluding PC games (up 20%) and toys (up 16%).