Digital downloads soar on Christmas Day, online holiday shopping up 15 percent

E-retailers raked in the dough in what was one of the busiest online shopping seasons in recent years. According to research firm comScore, cyber shoppers in the U.S. spent over $35 billion from November 1 to Christmas Day – a 15 percent increase over last year’s figures.

Individual shopping days also blew away 2011 numbers, said comScore. Thanksgiving Day saw an 18 percent boost, and Cyber Monday spending jumped 22 percent. Even Black Friday, traditionally a retail-focused shopping day, proved busy for cyber shoppers, seeing a 26 percent increase for a total of $816 million in sales.

“Holiday e-commerce spending has remained strong throughout the season, and we have now reached a record $35 billion in U.S. online sales for the season-to-date,” said Gian Fulgoni, comScore chairman. “We can now say with certainty that the $1.25 billion spent on Cyber Monday will rank it as the heaviest online spending day of the season for the second consecutive year, but we should also note that it was accompanied by nine other billion dollar spending days this year.”

The group’s research also revealed that the purchase of digital content – apps, songs, e-books – on Christmas morning grabbed 20 percent of total e-commerce spending. On average, such items only contribute around 3 percent during the holidays, comScore added.

That’s a lot of iTunes gift cards.