Photo by Kari Shea on Unsplash.

Online sales grew a whopping 49% in this year's holiday shopping season.

E-commerce Boom

A report from Mastercard Inc. (MA) today said holiday spending in general increased 3% from last year in the U.S. As expected amid the pandemic, the e-commerce side of things grew at a much faster pace, seeing a 49% jump over 2019.

The Mastercard SpendingPulse report defined the season as running from Oct. 11 to Dec. 24. Shoppers in the U.S. shopped earlier and more often from their homes amid COVID-19 concerns. Some notable info:

Apparel was actually down 19.1% year-over-year in total, while still seeing a 15.7% jump in e-commerce sales. Furniture and furnishings were up 16.2% overall and 31% on the e-commerce side. Home improvement sales jumped 79.7% through e-commerce channels, while growing 14.1% in total. Total Jewelry sales fell 4.3% while increasing 44.6% in e-commerce sales.

Stock Exposure

Besides the shares of any number of publicly traded retailers, ETFs like ProShares Online Retail ETF (ONLN) offer a chance to play this space. It is up 110.69% year to date.