Online shopping grew significantly over holiday season

The economy still has not recovered completely from the lows that it fell to over the last year. Despite the poor economy, there are signs that things are slowly moving back to normal and shoppers this holiday season were spending money.
Black Friday shopping grew 11% compared to 2008 both online and in retail stores. ComScore reported that online shopping for 2009 was expected to hit $28.8 billion compared to the $28 billion spent online for the 2008 holiday season.
InformationWeek reports that comScore has announced that online sales for the holiday were up significantly and broke records. Online purchases via cell phones have matured this year and eBay reports that it sold 1.5 million items to cell phone users in the recent weeks. Many of the items weren't small ticket sales; the largest was a $75,000 purchase of a 1966 Corvette and a boat purchased for $19,000.
ComScore's Jack Flanagan said: "November marks the official start of the holiday shopping season as millions of Americans search for gifts and deals both online and in stores. With nearly 4 out of 5 Americans online visiting a retail site during November, the Internet clearly represents an increasingly important channel for retailers during the holiday season and beyond."
The big growth categories according to the metrics firm were toys, consumer electronics, and department stores with overall sales growth online of 30%. ToysRUs was the big mover with an 82% increase in sales and Bestbuy.com grew 139% with 25 million visitors during the holiday season.