It's no secret that online shopping is becoming more and more popular, especially during the holiday season where people (like me) prefer doing their Christmas shopping from home instead of battling traffic and crowds at the mall. The U.S. saw a significant increase in online holiday spending, reaching a new record of $30.81 billion for the first 56 days of November to December.

This was a 13% increase over last year, with the week before Christmas netting $2.45 billion and a 17% increase all by itself. Computer hardware, which includes items like tablets, e-readers, and laptops in well, saw a healthy 23 percent increase over 2009 and even books and magazines came in second on the list with a 22 percent increase in sales. All in all, it was a good time to be an online retailer.