Mastercard says online holiday sales grew 18.8 percent

MasterCard's SpendingPulse showed a nice bump up in overall retail spending 3.4 percent between Nov. 1 and Christmas Eve (excluding auto sales) vs. the prior year period. In a new record, online accounted for 15 percent of total retail sales during the period, 15.4 percent of "Black Friday" sales and nearly a quarter of "Cyber Monday" sales.