MasterCard SpendingPulse reports that online sales surged 32% in December. (Reported by Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan in the Wall Street Journal today).

While these numbers aren’t directly comparable to the more widely-reported Comscore stats about holiday season shopping, they reflect greater strength than other reports we’ve seen. Two facts stand out:

1. MasterCard’s numbers include gift card purchases, which retailers don’t book as revenue until they’re redeemed. Since gift cards have recently become a hot holiday gift item, standard year-over-year retail sales comparisons may be underreporting actual sales growth.
2. Online retail continues to be the bright spot in overall retail sales. This is where the growth is.

Filed under: ecommerce, online retail, strategy