Reston, Va. - Following a slow start to the online holiday shopping season, strong sales on both Black Friday and Cyber Monday have bumped e-commerce spending for the first 35 days of the season back up to last year's levels, according to new figures from market research firm comScore.

Through Dec. 5, $14.92 billion had been spent online, essentially the same level as 2007. For the five days beginning with Dec. 1 (Cyber Monday), the kickoff to the heaviest part of the online shopping season, sales jumped 9%, with online sales exceeding $800 million both last Monday and Tuesday.

"The online holiday shopping season has picked up noticeably since Thanksgiving," said Gian Fulgoni, the chairman of comScore.

"While this growth is certainly a positive development in this tough retail season, it also needs to be put into perspective. With the compressed time period between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year -- five days shorter than last year -- we need to see continued strong growth during the critical weeks between today and Christmas if this year's shopping season is to at least match that of last year."

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http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2614