E-Commerce Sales Are Booming, Thanks to Discounts and Free Shipping

Online, at least, shoppers are spending money. Lots of it. People have spent $18.7 billion on e-commerce sites so far this holiday shopping season, 15 percent more than last year during the corresponding days, according to comScore.

They spent $6 billion the week that ended Dec. 2, including Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and spent more than $1 billion on three separate days that week, after breaking the billion-dollar mark for the first time on Cyber Monday last year. But retailers are paying for the surge in spending by offering discounts and free shipping. They have offered free shipping, which Web shoppers have grown accustomed to, at record levels, comScore said. Almost two-thirds of holiday purchases during the heavy shopping weeks before and after Thanksgiving included free shipping, about 10 percentage points higher than last year. And many retailers extended their deals beyond Cyber Monday.