• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, December 19, 2012

E-commerce spending for the first 46 days of the holiday season is up 13% to $35 billion compared to the same period last year, according to the latest information from comScore.

Last week (Dec. 10-16) marked the first weekend online spending has ever surpassed $7 billion, with four individual days so far exceeding the $1 billion mark. However, sales for the season so far are below comScore’s projection of 16% growth.

“This current week, which kicked off with Free Shipping Day on Monday the 17th, will be critical in making up some ground on a season-to-date growth rate that remains below initial expectations at 13 percent following a prolonged post-Cyber Monday lull,” said comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni, in the report released today.

With many retailers already offering some type of free shipping by Dec. 24, however, it’s not clear how much of sales bump they’ll get from the Monday promotion. It might take a larger than usual surge of last-minute shopping this year to meet comScore’s 16% growth prediction.