• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, January 5, 2007

E-commerce spending in November and December reached $24.6 billion--a 26% increase from last year, according to a new report by comScore. For the entire year, online retail spending soared to $102 billion--up 24% from last year's $83 billion.

Comparing spending patterns year-over-year, comScore found at least one major difference: consumers this year waited until closer to the holidays to make purchases. In the week before Christmas (the seven days ending Dec. 24), spending surged 45%--an increase that comScore attributes to consumers' belief that marketers would be able to ship goods in time for the holiday.

The highest-spending day turned out to be Dec. 13, when spending reached $666.9 million. Consumers only spent moderately on so-called "Cyber Monday"--the first Monday after Thanksgiving--racking up $607.6 million in online retail expenditures. In fact, the following day--the Tuesday after Thanksgiving--saw higher e-commerce spending ($608.2 million) than Cyber Monday.

Other big spending days included Dec. 11 ($660.8 million), Dec. 4 ($647.5 million), Dec. 8 ($638.2 million) and Dec. 14 ($634.4 million). comScore excludes auctions and large corporate purchases from its spending calculations.