ComScore (www.comscore.com), a company that "measures the digital world," has reported holiday season retail e-commerce spending for the first 37 days of the November–December 2012 holiday season.

For the holiday season-to-date US$26.6 billion has been spent online, marking a 13% increase versus the corresponding days last year. The most recent week saw three individual days eclipse $1 billion in spending -- Monday, Dec. 3 ($1.117 billion), Tuesday, Dec. 4 ($1.362 billion)  and Wednesday, Dec. 5 ($1.051 billion) -- bringing the total number of billion dollar spending days for the season to seven.    

"Despite posting three consecutive billion-dollar spending days and five in excess of $950 million, this past week saw a noticeable softening in e-commerce momentum as growth rates dipped into single-digits after beginning the season in the mid-teens," says comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. "However, we expect this lull to be a temporary effect having more to do with the extended shopping calendar this year with two additional shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, rather than weakening consumer fundamentals. This upcoming week led by Green Monday is likely to be the heaviest online spending week in history with a realistic chance of delivering five billion-dollar days."

Green Monday (Monday, December 10, 2012) this year is likely to be one of the heaviest online spending days of the season and a headliner for what is expected to the busiest online spending week on record. While Green Monday has seen online spending levels double over the past six years to more than $1.1 billion last year, the day has actually become slightly less important to the season overall. Once the heaviest day of the online shopping season, Green Monday has not assumed the top position since 2007.