Merry e-Christmas on the way?

Retailers could be heading for a very merry e-Christmas this year, as online shopping jumped more than 32 per cent year-over-year in the two days following the US Thanksgiving holiday.

While ecommerce accounted for 7.7 per cent of all transactions on Visa credit cards during that period, according to Visa USA, the larger surge in Visa-related ecommerce transactions came on Thanksgiving Day itself.

Ecommerce sales rose 41 per cent, to $205m, and accounted for 13 per cent of all Visa-related transactions on Thanksgiving Day, according to Visa.

Brad Nightengale, vice president of emerging products for Visa, said: "Online shopping was higher than I anticipated for Thanksgiving Day. It showed more people snuck away from the dinner table to do online shopping. The 41 per cent increase was significantly higher than any other day since 31 October, when holiday shopping began."

Online holiday shopping is also anticipated to peak earlier this year, given the sales trend to date, Nightengale said.

Last year, a peak of $481m ecommerce transactions was reached on 1 December. This year, that figure was nearly matched on 15 November, when $461m Visa-related transactions were processed.

Holiday ecommerce sales are expected to further accelerate this week because shoppers tend to spend more time online during the weekdays than they do on weekends, when they can leisurely stroll through malls and stores, Nightengale said.

In the week before the Thanksgiving holiday, 58 per cent of ecommerce purchases, excluding travel, occurred at work, according to ComScore Networks, a research firm that tracks human behaviour. Forty-seven percent of online spending occurred between 13:00 and 17:00 during that period, according to ComScore.

Employers take note: only nine per cent of online spending occurred during the lunch hour, ComScore said.

eBay enjoyed the highest number of unique visitors the day after Thanksgiving - known as Black Friday by retailers - according to Nielsen/NetRatings. The ecommerce titan drew 9.5 million unique visitors, followed by Amazon.com with 4.6 million visitors and Wal-Mart Stores with 3.4 million.

Online shoppers snapped up toys and video games, the fastest-growing retail category, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. Visitors to toy and video game websites rose 152 per cent from the week of 18 November to the week of 25 November.

Heather Dougherty, a Nielsen/NetRatings senior analyst, said in a statement: "The toys and video games category experienced the largest increases in traffic, fuelled by the release of the Xbox 360 and the continued popularity of portable game consoles."

Sites devoted to consumer electronics, as well as to computer hardware and software, also posted a triple-digit jump, with visitor increases of 142 per cent and 102 per cent, respectively, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.

Dawn Kawamoto writes for CNET News.com