• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, December 5, 2012

U.S. online spending topped $21 billion for the first 32 days of the holiday shopping season, up 14% from a year ago, according to the latest data from comScore. While sales surpassed $1 billion on three days, including Black Friday and Cyber Monday, they’ve fallen off considerably since. From Tues. Nov. 26 to Fri. Nov. 30, e-commerce was up only 11% compared to the year-earlier period.

Further, the 14% overall increase so far is a bit below comScore’s projection of a 16% gain in online holiday sales this year. The softening of sales following Cyber Monday appears to support the view that pushing deals earlier in the season would lead to a drop-off later on.

“It is likely that, to some extent, holiday spending was pulled forward to the Thanksgiving-Black Friday period given the heightened promotional activity around that time,” said comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni. “And some of the softening is a natural post-Cyber Monday lull that we often experience, an effect that may be somewhat more pronounced this year given the additional shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas.”

He added that he expects shopping activity to pick up again in the next couple of weeks before Christmas.