As has been the case throughout 2007, online sales have carried the day once again for retailers in what has been a disappointing holiday season. According to industry reports released the day after Christmas, online sales rose by healthy margins over the previous holiday season, depending upon the industry firms which track such figures.

SpendingPulse reported that online retail volume increased by more than 22 percent over 2006, while comScore networks indicated that e-commerce topped $26 billion, a 19 percent increase over the previous year.

For bricks-and-mortar retailers – while final figures won’t likely be in until Jan. 10 – the holiday retail season capped what already had been a thoroughly dampened year of revenue activity. Apparel sales, in fact, have taken the brunt of the downturn with apparel in general and men’s apparel increasing by a token margin of 1.4 percent and 2.3 percent, respectively. Women’s apparel sales in 2007 have actually fallen by 2.7 percent over the previous year, according to MasterCard’s SpendingPulse tracking report.

For online sales, Monday, Dec. 10, and Tuesday, Dec. 11, were the busiest days, according to comScore networks. Sales totaled $1.7 billion for the two days. In fact, Cyber Monday – right after the Thanksgiving holiday weekend – ranked as only the ninth busiest day of the holiday shopping season.

Overall, online sales rose by more than 18.5 percent over the same holiday period in 2006 – a much more robust showing than the paltry 2.4 percent holiday season growth rate which SpendingPulse has estimated for the retail sector in general.