• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, January 11, 2006

E-commerce spending during the holidays peaked on Dec. 5--the second Monday after Thanksgiving--according to a new report by DoubleClick's Performics unit.

Mondays generally were the busiest online shopping days between Thanksgiving and New Year's, with revenues also surging on Nov. 28, Dec. 12, and Dec. 19. Sales on the last Monday before Christmas, Dec. 19, surpassed those on the first Monday of the season, according to the report. Performics--which has tracked holiday e-commerce data since 2002--reported that in previous years, sales were stronger the Monday after Thanksgiving than immediately preceding Christmas.

Performics proposed that one reason why sales were high so close to Christmas was that even as late as Dec. 19, retailers were able to offer guaranteed delivery by Christmas Day.

comScore Networks also reported strong activity late in the month, with spending the third week in December rivaling that of the second week. comScore--which estimated that e-commerce revenues increased by 25 percent from 2004's holiday season--reported that weekly revenues peaked at $3.069 billion for the week ending Dec. 11, then dropped off only slightly to $3.036 billion for the week ending Dec. 18.