U.S. retail e-commerce spending increased to an estimated $66.9 billion in the first half of 2010, up 9.3% from $61.2 billion for the same period as year ago, according to figures released today by comScore Inc.

E-commerce spending in the second quarter reached $32.9 billion, up 8.9% from $30.2 billion for the same period last year. Second quarter e-commerce spending was down 3.2% from first quarter spending of $34.0 billion, comScore says. See charts about e-commerce sales.

U.S. consumer retail spending also is on the rise. Total retail sales were up 6.8% for the first five months of 2010 compared with the same period last year. Total retail spending for the period was $1.25 trillion, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics.

 

For the comScore figures, top-performing e-commerce categories during the second quarter included consumer electronics, computer software, computers/peripherals/PDAs and books/magazines.

“The second quarter’s continuation of the first quarter’s strong retail e-commerce growth rates is encouraging,” says Gian Fulgoni, comScore’s chairman. “We remain cautiously optimistic heading into the second half of the year, but will be keeping a close eye on unemployment rates, which, along with potential uncertainty in the stock market, could limit growth in e-commerce spending in the near term.”

This year’s spending increase for the first half is not the largest in percentage terms in recent years. First half spending in 2008 reached $61.8 billion, up 12% from $55.1 billion in 2007. First half spending in 2009 decreased 0.9%, to $61.2 billion.

Also released separately today, Channel Intelligence’s same-store sales index found that Q2 online sales increased 23% from a year ago. It estimates online retailers sold $3.5 billion in total gross merchandise value during the quarter. The company’s index tracks online sales at more than 600 of its clients.

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