• by Masha Geller , December 1, 2002

The country has spent the last few days eating and shopping, and that’s good news for e-tailers and the web in general.

Not all Black Friday numbers are in yet, but online sales monitored at 2,000 sites recorded sales of $234.2 million on Friday, up from $145.5 million on the day after Thanksgiving a year ago.

comScore is also continuing to see strong growth rates in online sales, although their numbers are slightly lower. According to their data, total online sales were up 40% from last year’s Black Friday, totaling $195.6 million. Non-travel amounted to $150.9 million (up 40% from Black Friday 2001) and Travel added up to $44.7 million (up 7%.)

The top three non-travel categories were Computer Hardware, Consumer Electronics and Apparel & Accessories. comScore is also seeing triple-digit percentage increases in other major categories such as Toys and Home & Garden.

That’s no surprise considering that last week Shop.org and BizRate.com said 60% of retailers posted revenue increases of 25% or greater during the first two weeks of November compared to the same period last year, and that most consumers still have a lot of holiday shopping left to do.