comScore, Inc. released an update of holiday season e-commerce spending for the first 39 days (November 1 - December 9) of the November - December 2007 holiday season. Nearly $19 billion has been spent online during the season-to-date, marking an 18-percent gain versus the corresponding days last year.

Thursday, December 6 recorded $803 million in online sales, up 28 percent versus year ago, making it the heaviest online spending day in history. "This past week was very strong for online retailers as consumers spent more than $4.6 billion online, up 20 percent versus year ago, making it the heaviest week of the holiday season to date," said comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni. "Consumers seemingly restrained their early November holiday spending in the hopes of catching some attractive late-season deals, so we expect that the current week will outperform the past week as the heaviest of the season."

Some additional findings during the most recent week:

- Consumer electronics experienced a strong week of online sales, up 43 percent versus year ago, outpacing its 23-percent growth rate during the season-to-date.

- Event tickets also had a particularly strong week, gaining 70 percent versus the corresponding period last year.

- Apparel outperformed its season-to-date growth rate of 16 percent with a 22-percent gain during the most recent week.

- Toy sales saw just a 3-percent growth rate during the past week, lowering its growth for the season to date to 14 percent.

Online Retail Spending Peaks Mid-Day

During this year's holiday season, online spending has peaked during the middle of the day, driven by the heavy influence of shopping from work, with work buying accounting for 45 percent of all e-commerce dollars spent this holiday season. More than half of all online dollars were spent between the hours of 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM, with the heaviest spending (26.9 percent) occurring during the 12:00 PM - 3:00 PM time segment. Nearly 10 percent of online spending occurred between 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM and 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM, making them the peak individual hour segments during the day.