Over $16 Billion Has Been Spent Online This Holiday Season

This holiday season online shopping has increased 16 percent year-over-year, according to a new study by comScore.

According to the study, Cyber Monday garnered over $1.4 billion in online spending for 2012. The mark represents a 17 percent increase from this time last year. Gian Fulgoni, comScore’s chairman, says that Cyber Monday’s continued growth is a result of the expanding push by retailers and marketers to get consumers aware of the day’s deals.

“Cyber Monday was often misconstrued as the heaviest online spending day of the year, when in fact it barely cracked the top 10 days of the season,” said Fulgoni.

“However, with the passage of time, the day grew in importance as a result of an increasing number of retailers offering very attractive deals on the day and extensive digital media coverage making sure that consumers were aware of them. As a result, Cyber Monday has assumed the mantle of top online spending day for the past two years – a trend we expect to hold once again in 2012.”

The comScore study found that digital content and subscription purchases saw the largest amount of sales growth for Cyber Monday 2012. Digital content and subscription purchases jumped 28 percent year-over-year.

Consumer electronics and computer hardware purchases rounded out the top three fastest growing Cyber Monday earners this year. Computer hardware saw a 22 percent increase in sales this year. While consumer electronics sales jumped 24 percent when compared to this time last year.

According to comScore, almost half of all Cyber Monday purchases were made on a work computer. The study found that 47.1 percent of shoppers did their online shopping while on the job.

Surprisingly, the number was about dead even with Cyber Monday shopping done on a home computer. Home shopping was done at a 47.2 percent clip.

The recent Cyber Monday study comes following comScore research into Thanksgiving and Black Friday shopping statistics. In the previous study, comScore found that online shopping on Thanksgiving Day had increased by 32 percent this year.