According to a company issued press release by ComScore, Inc., an analytics firm that measures the digital world’s performance, online retail spending reached $41.9 billion in Q3, up 15 percent from last year. This would make the 12th consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth and eighth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth.

“The Q3 growth rate of 15 percent remained in line with the prior quarter and provided confirmation of the strength in the e-commerce sector, despite a few negative headwinds in the macroeconomic environment during the quarter,” said comScore chairman, Gian Fulgoni. “Such performance offers some optimism as we approach the holiday season, especially given recent improvements in consumer sentiment. With the housing market beginning to show signs of recovery in addition to increasing – if still underwhelming – job growth, there appears to be strong enough footing to support a very healthy online holiday shopping season.”

Of the online categories in Q3, the top performers were digital content and subscriptions, consumer electronics, event tickets, apparel and accessories, and computer software. Each category grew at least 16 percent from a year ago.

According to comScore’s quarterly online retail survey, 37 percent of U.S. consumers say they have engaged in “showrooming” behavior where they use a smartphone while in a retail store to check prices or to purchase products online. This represents an increase of 5 percentage points in the past two quarters.

The survey also showed that despite a slow-moving economic recovery there has been marked improvement in consumer sentiment in the past quarter.