WASHINGTON, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- It looks to be a jolly-green holiday season for e-merchants with early reports indicating that this is online retail's biggest and busiest year yet.

According to preliminary data from comScore Networks, online spending for the week ending Friday, Dec. 26 (excluding travel and auctions) was $950 million compared to $670 million in the same week last year. This represents an increase of 43 percent versus this same period a year ago.

"With the exception of Christmas Day, when so many consumers turn their attention from gift shopping to gift giving, our data reported sales over $100 million dollars in each day of this latest week," said Dan Hess, senior vice president of comScore Networks.

"The week's strength was driven by Christmas occurring one day later in the week than last year, plus continued robust sales across most major product categories. As expected, categories such as gift certificates and flowers were standouts, thanks to the ability to send such gifts purely online or with same-day delivery," he said.

The overall comScore holiday forecast for spending in November and December is for a total between $12.1 and $12.6 billion (excluding travel and auctions). This represents an increase of 25 percent to 30 percent versus this same period a year ago when online sales totaled $9.7 billion.