U.S. online shopping mounts up during holiday season

    CHICAGO, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- The United States is seeing a sharp increase of online shopping for this holiday season, an Internet information provider said Tuesday.

    ComScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, released an update of holiday season e-commerce spending for the first 46 days of the November -December 2007 holiday season (November 1- December 16).

    More than 23 billion U.S. dollars have been spent online during the season, marking a 19 percent gain versus the corresponding days last year.

    The most recent week, which saw online spending jump 22 percent, will likely be the heaviest online spending week of the season with 4.7 billion dollars in sales.

    A survey conducted by comScore shows that video games, consoles and accessories continues to be the fastest growing online retail category, jumping 129 percent versus the corresponding days last year, while furniture, appliances and equipment (up 63 percent), event tickets (up 29 percent) and consumer electronics (up 24 percent) have also demonstrated above average growth.

    After a very slow start to the season, online apparel sales have picked up considerably, with growth now registering 17 percent for the season.