Online shopping during the first seven weeks of the holiday season jumped 24 percent compared to last year, according to a report released Wednesday.

Sales climbed to $16.34 billion between November 1 through December 18 from $13.16 billion in a comparable period of 2004, according to data from comScore Networks.

The research firm also found that online spending for the week ending December 18, 2005 surged 29 percent over the same week in 2004. The report excludes travel data.

Heavy discounts and promotions helped account for the increase. Shoppers also may have been turned off by news reports that showed frantic activity in stores on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, with footage of shoppers being trampled as soon as the doors opened.

By comparison, online shopping appears easier to many consumers, despite the threats of phishing and other security concerns. Cyber Monday has also emerged as a phenomenon in American shopping habits, with consumers jamming shopping sites on the Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday weekend (see Cyber Monday Traffic Jumps and E-Tail Sales Rise Sharply).

“Retailers’ continued use of the last-minute promotions and discounted in-time shipping have allowed consumers to comfortably extend their online purchasing later into the season,” said Gian Fulgoni, chairman of comScore Networks.

His firm is predicting that consumer spending on non-travel, retail goods on U.S. Internet sites will exceed $19 billion for the 2005 November/December holiday season, representing 24 percent growth over last year.

Online Procrastinators

Another report released this week also found growth in online holiday shopping, as well as later starts to shopping.

Nielsen//NetRatings, Goldman Sachs, and Harris Interactive reported that shoppers spent $18.6 billion, excluding travel, during the first six weeks of the holiday season from October 29 to December 9.

That represented a 16 percent increase over last year’s holiday season. The greatest proportion of that spending was on apparel, totaling $3.4 billion, or 17 percent of total revenue. Consumer electronics came next with $2.8 billion, or 14 percent.

That was followed by computer hardware and peripherals at $2.7 billion, or 13 percent of total revenue (see Holiday Computer Sales Jump). Books finished fourth, at $2.2 billion, or 11 percent of total revenue, followed by toys and video games with $1.4 billion, or 7 percent of total revenue.

Consumers are also postponing their online shopping. By the fifth week of the online shopping season, 30 percent of the 1,000 consumers surveyed said they had not yet started their online shopping, which was up from 23 percent last year.

Nevertheless, traditional brick-and-mortar stores still garnered 69 percent of consumers’ spending, compared to 27.5 percent for online channels. Still, the proportion of online spending was up 5.9 points over last year. Catalogs attracted 3.5 percent of spending.