Online Holiday Spending: Still Increasing

Consumers have spent more than $17.5 billion in the first 35 days of the holiday season.
By Olivia Oran ,

NEW YORK (

TheStreet

) -- Consumers continue to loosen their purse strings this holiday season, boosting the amount they've spent online 12% over last year, according to industry tracker

Comscore.

Shoppers have thrown down more than $17.5 billion over the first 35 days of holiday season, from November to December.

Cyber Monday was the heaviest online spending day on record, as consumers spent more than $1 billion -- an increase of 16% over last year. Online spending growth softened, however, during the latter half of the week, as many retailers' aggressive promotions and price cuts expired.

An increase in retailers offering free shipping was an important driver of the e-commerce growth. Around 85% of online retailers plan to offer free shipping at some point this holiday season, up from 79% last year, said the

National Retail Federation

.

More than half of transactions so far this holiday season have included free shipping, and the majority of consumers are likely to abandon their shopping carts if this incentive is not offered, said Comscore.

Both

Best Buy

(BBY) - Get Report

and

Walmart

(WMT) - Get Report

are offering free shipping until December 21.

Gap

(GPS) - Get Report

, the parent company of Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy, said in October it will offer free shipping every day starting in January.

--Written by Olivia Oran in New York.

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