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Reston, Va.--More than $1 billion was spent in online retail sales for four of the five workdays last week, putting this year’s holiday season e-commerce 15 percent ahead of 2010, according to comScore.

Monday, Dec. 12 led online sales for the week with $1.13 billion spent, and “Free Shipping Day,” Dec. 16, saw $1.07 billion spent.

“More than $1 billion in spending on Free Shipping Day put the exclamation point on what will almost certainly be the heaviest week of the online holiday shopping season,” Gian Fulgoni, comScore chairman, said.

Still, comScore said Cyber Monday will likely rank as the heaviest online spending day of 2011 for the second consecutive year, with $1.25 billion spent.

“While next week may see another strong day or two at the beginning of the week, it’s clear that we have now reached the crescendo for this season and that spending will begin to slow as we get closer to Christmas,” Fulgoni said.

For the holiday season to date, which includes Nov. 1-Dec. 16, $30.93 billion has been spent online, compared to $26.91 in 2010.

Retail e-commerce spending trends suggest that holiday deals, such as discounts and free shipping, may have been frontloaded during the earlier portion of the season, comScore reports. Year-over-year growth rates for Monday and Fridays, the majority of the key promotional days during the holiday season, were higher for the days closer to Thanksgiving.

For example, Dec. 16, “Free Shipping Day,” only saw a 14 percent increase over 2010, while Nov. 25, the day after Thanksgiving, was up 26 percent versus 2010.

Free shipping also plays a major role in when consumers make purchases. comScore found that while e-commerce transactions including free shipping declined in the second week of December, they rebounded the week after, which included Free Shipping Day (Dec. 16).

Additionally, each week of the holiday season to date has seen free shipping occur on at least half of all transactions.

“Free shipping is undoubtedly one of the most important incentives for consumers and has become a key driver of online buying activity over the past few years,” Fulgoni said. “This season has seen a continuation of the trend where an increasing percentage of transactions involve free shipping as more consumers demand it and more retailers provide it.”

comScore’s estimates are based on tracking the online activity of a panel of 1 million United States consumers.