NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - E-tailers enjoyed a robust holiday shopping season as total online sales jumped almost 30 percent over the same period last year, according to a market research firm's report.

ComScore Networks, an e-commerce market research firm based in Reston, Va., said Saturday that online spending for the combined November and December period grew 29.5 percent to $12.5 billion, compared with 19 percent growth to $9.7 billion in the 2002 holiday season.

Source: ComScore Networks

The firm had initially forecast online sales to be up about 25 percent to 30 percent to between $12.1 billion and $12.6 billion.

For the full year, total Internet retail sales grew 22 percent to $52 billion, the report said.

"We've just closed another great year in online commerce. Consumers spent an average of $200 million per day throughout November and December, bringing holiday growth to just about the top end of our forecast of 25 to 30 percent," Dan Hess, senior vice president of ComScore wrote in a report.

"Online travel sales fared even better this year. The sector was up 35 percent versus 2002 and has more than more than doubled since 2001," Hess added. "Non-travel sales recovered impressively from war-related softness early in the year, with 2003 posting a healthy 22 percent total increase over 2002."

ComScore Networks compiled the sales data from 50,000 online merchants.