• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, November 27, 2006

Online retailers appear poised to have a decent holiday season, at least judging by the preliminary numbers released this weekend by different measurement companies. At the same time, some e-commerce stores still have some work to do to shore up their sites for the remaining weeks in the holiday season.

Consider Walmart.com, which crashed Friday, unable to accommodate the influx of Web visitors. A representative said told CNNMoney.com that crash was "due to a higher than anticipated traffic surge"--an explanation that, if true, raises more questions than it answers.

Consumers have many reasons to shop online--avoiding crowds, lines, shortages, transportation hassles. But a site crash on Friday, a day that company executives should have anticipated would have drawn extra traffic, doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

Still, despite the glitches, overall e-commerce spending is ballooning so far this year. It totaled $434 million Friday--up 42% from the same day last year, according to comScore. Traffic also increased--though more modestly, according to data from both Nielsen//NetRatings and Hitwise. Nielsen//NetRatings reported that traffic to the 120-plus sites on its holiday retail index surged 12% on the day after Thanksgiving, while Hitwise reported that visits to the 100 sites on its index were up by just 2.7% from the previous year. Hitwise did find a bigger increase--11.8%--on Thanksgiving Day.