Online Holiday Shopping Doesn’t Disappoint

The numbers are in from a variety of metrics firms and it would appear that it was indeed a happy holiday season for online retailers. Online spending increased by 25% over last year as shoppers used their fingers rather than their elbows to secure clothing, electronics, and even a $94,000 pair of diamond earrings.

Those as expensive-as-a-house earrings were the pride and joy of Amazon.com's holiday season, a glitzy addition to the other 108 million items sold on the site between Nov. 1 and Dec. 25.

Amazon's sale of the earrings is also indicative of the fastest growing online retail category, retail jewelry and luxury goods, which showed 39% growth, according to comScore Media Metrix. These goods drew over 16.4 million visitors this season...