Online Retail Sales Continue to Rise

Sluggish economy or not, online retail sales continue to surge upward, according to the latest data from BizRate.com.

Average order size is slightly down though, from $145 to $142.

ComScore Networks reported a similar increase, tallying last week's online shopping at $1.5 billion, up 41 percent from the same week last year. "Black Monday," the Monday after Thanksgiving, saw a 49 percent increase year-to-year, to $380 million.

For last week, the home and garden category saw the biggest year-to-year increase, up 114 percent. Online sales of computer hardware however were flat year to year.