Online purchases exceed $100 billion in 2006

Reston (VA) - The numbers are in, and 2006 marked a new record for non-travel e-commerce spending, as the first year to reach total transactions of more than $100 billion. The 2006 holiday season accounted for nearly 25% of the year’s entire sales volume.

In total, 2006 saw online sales of $102.1 billion, showing a 24% year-over-year increase from 2005, according to the Internet market analysts at Comscore Networks. These numbers do not include travel expenses which account for hundreds of billions of dollars of the e-commerce market all by itself.

The continued growth of e-commerce, combined with the frenzy of the holiday shopping season, gave the final two months a record online spending total of $24.6 billion, a 26% jump from last year’s final two months, which saw e-tail transactions of $19.6 billion. During the final two months of 2006, Comscore recorded 12 individual days that saw online sales of more than $600 million.

Wednesday, December 13, which was the last or near the last day for many online stores to guarantee delivery by Christmas, became the new record holder for single day transactions, with a total of $667 million.

Cyber Monday, the increasingly competitive cyber version of Black Friday, which takes place on the Monday after Thanksgiving, ranked #12 in terms of single-day spending, with $608 million dollars. However, it made headlines by becoming the first single day to record more than $600 million in online sales, before being trumped by eleven more lucrative days in December. In 2005, not a single day passed $600 million, and there were only six days that recorded sales of at least $500 million.