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.

Also through Friday actual season-to-date sales were $11.7 billion, an increase of 29 percent versus this same period a year ago, according to comScore.

Atlanta-based Web marketing firm Redfern Services, Inc. said the firm's preliminary estimates from online businesses showed a marked rate of growth for sales in 2003.

"We're seeing record growth for online business," said Michael Holland, a spokesman for Redfern. He added that the number one factor which shoppers cited for going online was convenience, informative product comparisons, live online support, and ease of use.

"Customers (online businesses) that updated their sites and implemented search optimization saw the biggest increase in their online business this year," Holland said. "Online sales this year were up over 40 percent over 2002. And, projections for 2004 are estimating an increase of another 30 to 45 percent."

Amazon.com, a bellwether of e-commerce, reports that for 2003 it posted its busiest holiday season since its start nine years ago. The company set a single-day record of more than 2.1 million items ordered, or 24 items per second.

"We're thankful to the millions of customers worldwide who trusted us with their holiday shopping this year," said Amazon's Jeff Wilke, senior vice president of worldwide operations.

Amazon, however, has not released the dollar figure for its holiday sales yet and declined to disclose the actual day the company hit it ordering record citing competitive financial reasons.

The Seattle-based online giant said that during its peak shipping day the company shipped over one million packages worldwide. Also, the company said in a release that more than 70,000 gift certificates were ordered worldwide on Dec. 24, 2003, for delivery via email in time for Christmas. Amazon said that 99 percent of orders were shipped in time to meet holiday deadlines worldwide.

In the United States, later free shipping deadlines compared to last year gave customers several extra days to order and ship presents. The company said that the last order placed in time for Christmas delivery occurred at 11:32 a.m. PST on Tuesday, December 23, and was delivered to Vail, Colorado on Dec. 24.

Amazon's "Holiday Shoppers" meter, which tracked the estimated number of visitors at Amazon.com during the prior 60 minutes of each hour, topped out at 630,000 visitors on Monday, Dec. 15.

The company said that some of its biggest selling items during the holiday season, starting from the day after Thanksgiving, included pedometers, Harry & David's "Tower of Treats," Ghirardelli chocolates, the Canon Powershot digital camera; the Norelco's 8894XL Spectra electric shaver, and the iRobot Roomba robotic vacuum. This year's the top tool selling on Amazon was the Strait-Line 64001 Laser Level.

In Amazon's core business -- books, music, and video/DVD's -- the e-commerce company's top musical sellers ran from Sarah McLachlan's "Afterglow," to The Beatles' "Let it Be...Naked," and Josh Groban's "Closer" CDs; video/DVD sales were dominated by big-name movie titles, including the "Two Towers" gift set, The "Matrix Reloaded," "Terminator 3," and The "Adventures of Indiana Jones," all in the top 10.

In the book department, "The Da Vinci Code," the "South Beach Diet" and "The Five People You Meet in Heaven," were some of the top-selling books this holiday season.

According to a study of online retailing by Shop.org/BizRate.com from right before the end of the holidays, e-marketers were finding themselves with increased sales and high levels of customer satisfaction, compared to last year. The 2003 "eHoliday Mood Study," conducted by Shop.org and BizRate.com, found that by mid-December nearly half of e-retailers said that holiday sales had increased by more than 35 percent over last year.

The survey also reported that 88 percent of online shoppers responding to the survey said that they were "somewhat" or "very satisfied" with their online buying experience this holiday.