• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, December 5, 2012

It looks like Christmas came early for the ecommerce industry.
 
During the first 32 days of the official holiday season, online shoppers spent $21.4 billion, according to the latest comScore data.
 
That represented a 14% increase year-over-year. According to comScore, this was driven both by an increase in the number of buyers -- up 9% to 128.7 million -- and the average spending per buyer -- up 5% to $166.
 
The increase in spending per buyer came primarily from an increase in the number of transactions -- up 4% to 2.19 per buyer -- as opposed to the amount spent per transaction -- up only 1% to $76.
 
“We are seeing growth come from an increase in both the number of buyers and the average spending per buyers. It suggests broad-based strength in the e-commerce sector,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni, and the "health of the consumer who has been willing to spend more online this year than last."
 
Given the relative infancy of the industry, Fulgoni said he considered it remarkable that half of the online population has already made an ecommerce purchase this holiday season.
 
The most recent week saw three individual days eclipse $1 billion in spending, led by Cyber Monday, which became the heaviest online spending day on record at $1.46 billion.
 
Yet growth rates softened markedly in the wake of Cyber Monday and through the weekend, according to comScore.