Market research firm, comScore Networks, has just released its 2006 holiday season spending through December 26, 2006. Holiday sales during the week prior to Christmas rose 38% versus the same week in 2005. Total non-travel online spending at U.S. e-commerce sites for all of 2006 surpassed the $100 billion mark for the first time ever, resulting in an explosion in consumer spending habits from traditional brick and mortar stores.

“Online sales continued to show strong growth during the last week before Christmas when procrastinators were clicking with confidence,” said Gian Fulgoni, chairman of comScore Networks. “Consumers making purchases in those final days expressed both their faith in retailers’ ability to pick and pack their orders in a timely fashion and shippers’ ability to drop them on recipients’ doorsteps in time for Christmas. That online retail consumer spending for the year-to-date has surpassed the $100 billion mark is a testament to the continued growth and strength of the online marketplace. Retail e-commerce now accounts for approximately 7 percent of consumers’ U.S. retail spending (excluding gas, autos and food), making it an important component of the total U.S. economy.”

Ranked by total retail sales for the holiday season through December 26, Amazon.com topped the list, followed by Dell.com, Yahoo.com and Walmart.com. An analysis of leading retailers by percentage increase in sales from 2005 to 2006 found that consumer electronics retailer Bestbuy.com achieved the greatest gains, followed by Walmart.com and Ticketmaster.com, with each of these three sites experiencing gains in excess of 50 percent.