Not a whole lot, except they’re all featured users on Mulu.me, a Pinterest-like e-commerce site that helps users generate money for their favorite causes.

The site opens to the public today, after having been in beta mode since early December.

Mulu.me, which was created by San Francisco-based entrepreneur Amaryllis Fox, is an online retail space through which “regular” people, retailers and more recognizable names can recommend Web pages — whether a YouTube video, a link to an item of clothing, even a pair of airline tickets — all for the purpose of driving purchases. On their profiles, users can identify charities for which they’re raising money.

Here’s how it works: Mulu generates revenue from affiliate program fees, then splits it with the “curator,” and the curator decides what percentage of that goes to his or her charity of choice.

So if a Mulu user were to drive a buyer to a product available on Amazon.com, Mulu would get a cut of that purchase — 4 percent to 8 percent — of which the person who originally posted the product would get a revenue share of 2 percent to 4 percent.

Ultimately, this can leave little left over for charity — and there’s no mandate saying users have to give to one — but for some, tying buying to a cause is a motivating factor.

One thing that sets Mulu apart from other curation sites, or even a site like Pinterest, is its question-and-answer element. Users can post a question to the boards, just as they would an image, Web site link or video, and receive answers from other Mulu members.

Around New Year’s Eve, for example, I asked for recommendations about affordable but good champagnes, and received two answers (from people I didn’t know) from the Mulu community. The answers were helpful; what wasn’t as helpful was that the subsequent email notifications simply said I had received an answer, but didn’t include any other content. This is great for Mulu, as it drives people back to the site to see what the answers are, but it can be irksome for users. The company says it is considering changing the notification system.

Aside from a few other features that set Mulu apart — its curator “guru points,” for instance — the site works a bit like OpenSky, an e-commerce site that features celebrities as curators and splits the gross profits with them. OpenSky, which launched in 2009, started out as an e-commerce platform for bloggers, but gained little traction; the company later changed its direction and became a straight shopping site, with “influencers” pushing the products (OpenSky holds inventory; Mulu does not). It’s a newish twist on e-commerce that challenges the traditional recommendation systems.

“It’s not like an Amazon.com or Best Buy recommendation for a digital camera — it’s a professional photographer’s recommendation for a camera,” Fox said. “We’re moving toward a grassroots curation of product discovery online.”

Mulu.me is fun to browse and slightly addictive, regardless of whether the stream is filled with famous people, friends or people you might not even know.

The company is planning a more formal launch around the SXSW Interactive festival in March, which will also include the introduction of a Mulu iPhone app.

Earlier this month, Gilt Groupe CEO Kevin Ryan downplayed rumors that the New York-based company was undergoing a massive restructuring.

He said that nearly all of Gilt Groupe’s 900 employees and business units would remain intact, despite reports that painted a fairly grim picture of the situation.

Today, Ryan confirmed that the final tally ended up being from 80 to 90 people, and that John Auerbach, who headed Park & Bond, its men’s full-priced apparel site, and Nathan Richardson, who ran Gilt City, would both be leaving, after a transition period.

All of the cuts are designed to get the company to cash flow positive by the second quarter, and profitable by the fourth quarter, Ryan said.

Additionally, Ryan said that Richardson and Auerbach, who was Gilt’s fifth employee, are leaving because both are better suited for running start-ups.

“I will be their No. 1 reference,” he said.

An internal memo announcing the departures is expected to be sent around later this afternoon.

On Friday, the cuts focused on Gilt City, the company’s daily deals site that, despite its high-end focus, was competing head to head with others, such as Groupon, LivingSocial and the many other clones in the market.

Ryan said there will be a lot of consolidation in the daily deals space going forward, but that in certain markets it remains a good business for the company, including New York, which is its most profitable division.

“I think you’ll end up with a smaller group of companies. There will be a couple of high-end players, like ourselves and Bloomspot, and then there will be a couple of verticals, like restaurants or kids, and that’s it,” he said.

As part of Friday’s cuts, the company confirmed that it will no longer have offices in Seattle, Dallas and Atlanta. Additional offices it gained through the acquisition of BuyWithMe, including San Diego, Houston and Philadelphia, will also close.

Customers in those markets will receive national deals, but only local deals that are sourced through a centralized sales team. Going forward, Gilt will have offices in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Miami and Washington, D.C.

Earlier this month, Ryan had said he had only expected to lay off about 50 staffers, much less than the rumored 170.

On Friday, New York Magazine reported that more than 100 people were laid off, naming both Richardson and Auerbach as departing executives. It also reported that staffers, who once received a fridge full of snacks, would no longer have a daily supply of fruit, yogurt, cheese and Pellegrino water.

Over the past year, the company expanded quickly beyond its roots as a flash sales site, adding Park & Bond, Gilt City and Gilt Taste, a high-end grocery site. It continues to be in about seven businesses.

Some of the areas that were also restructured were the newer sites, like Gilt Taste and Park & Bond, which Ryan said took more resources to get up and running than it took to run on a day-to-day basis.

Gilt, which raised $138 million in capital last May, is on track for an IPO, perhaps as early as the fourth quarter, but more likely in 2013, Ryan added.

In November and December, the number of online transactions increased by 37 percent, and overall sales jumped by 25 percent. But the average ticket size declined by 9 percent, according to Chase Paymentech, which analyzes information across the top 50 e-commerce retailers.

As it turns out, more consumers are turning to e-commerce for more of their everyday spending, rather than reserving online purchases for big-ticket items.

Here are Chase’s three reasons for the decline:

• More consumers are purchasing digital media, which has a lower price point than most physical goods — MP3s cost less than CDs, e-books cost less than paperbacks, and apps cost less than game cartridges.
• Prices for popular electronics, such as tablets, e-readers and TVs, are falling.
• More retailers are offering free shipping, which eliminates the incentive to fill carts to reach a free-shipping threshold.

EBay, which is the first major e-commerce provider to report Q4 results, confirmed it was also seeing the trend. The company’s payments division, PayPal, reported smaller transactions during the fourth quarter across the merchants it serves.

John Donahoe, eBay’s CEO, explained in an interview that the biggest driver of that trend was eBay’s acquisition of Zong, a mobile payments provider that powers the sale of digital goods. In addition, Donahoe said retailers, including eBay, heavily discounted products in order to drive more purchases this holiday.

Amazon, which is the leading e-commerce provider, also said that it is selling a lot of low-priced digital goods, ranging from e-books to MP3s.

Historically, the company has said that Christmas is the largest day of digital sales on Amazon.com, followed by Dec. 26. In 2010, from Christmas Eve through Dec. 30, Amazon customers purchased three times more digital content — including Kindle books, magazines, movies, TV shows, music and digital games — compared to the weekly average for the year.

Despite transactions declining overall, Chase identified two exceptions: Apparel and footwear rose 6 percent; toys rose 10 percent year over year.

(Amazon photo courtesy of thisisbossi)

The yellow-handled hammer, which the eBay CEO purchased at Home Depot using PayPal, signals that the company’s plans for entering the mobile payments business has entered the construction phase.

In an interview yesterday, Donahoe provided a few details about the company’s Home Depot trial and how it would expand from five to 51 stores across the country over the next week.

He also talked about his own experience of buying the tool earlier that morning. (Seen at right: Donahoe wielding his hammer.)

The company also announced fourth-quarter results yesterday, solidly beating both the company’s internal guidance and analyst expectations.

One of eBay’s big initiatives over the past year has been to find ways to work more closely with physical retailers by providing them with the technology they need to operate more efficiently online and offline. Over the past year, that has included buying 13 companies, for a total investment of $3.4 billion.

“We are right at the intersection of something that’s really cool,” Donahoe said. “This isn’t something that everyone sees, like social networking three years into it, when only the early people knew about it.”

What everyone is not seeing, he explains, is how retail and payments are two massive industries that are “at an inflection point where they will go through dramatic change.”

One major opportunity is payments being made at the cash register, and arguably many others see it, too, including Google, Visa, MasterCard and the wireless carriers, which are all working on their own solutions.

Interestingly, Donahoe was willing to put a price on it — and it’s huge.

If eBay is able to capture just 2 percent of the sales occurring at the point of sale, it will be able to double PayPal’s $70 billion business today. If they capture 4 percent, they’ll triple it.

Of course, that will take some time.

This year, eBay is focused on learning and testing out the technology in several trials; then, in 2013, it will begin to scale the business. In 2012, the company is not even factoring in a lift from point of sales in eBay’s revenue guidance.

The company’s big test will start later this week, when it expands its trial with Home Depot from five stores in the Bay Area to 51 stores in the Bay Area, Atlanta and Omaha.

Everything continues to be on track, despite the unexpected departure of PayPal President Scott Thompson. Thompson shocked Donahoe right after the New Year with the announcement that he was leaving to become CEO of Yahoo.

Donahoe declined to give an update on his plans to replace Thompson, saying that he was fine with serving the interim role in the meantime, and relying on the rest of the team PayPal has in place.

So far, Donahoe said, the mobile payments technology works flawlessly, based on his own experiences, but there’s still some additional scenarios they will have to consider.

Yesterday morning, he drove to a store in San Jose, where he consciously left his wallet and phone in the car.

He walked through the aisles to find a hammer and tape measure, and then went to check out, where the terminal gave him the option of checking out with PayPal. He entered his mobile phone number and PIN, and the transaction was completed, with the receipts sent to his phone and email.

“It was faster than swiping the card,” Donahoe said. “This is an advantage that PayPal has. No one else can do it with a mobile number and PIN. There was no fancy whiz-bang technology.”

Customers will also be given the option of paying with a PayPal credit card.

But not all the pieces are in place yet.

Coming soon: Users will be able to store their loyalty cards in their PayPal wallet, and will be able to receive personalized offers based on their shopping habits.

Also, it’s worth noting that while Donahoe checked out easily, there will be a learning curve for others. In advance of going to the store, users will have to associate a phone number and PIN with their account, and enable their account for in-store checkout.

Right now, there’s no contingency plans for if a person doesn’t have a PayPal account, or if it’s not set up. In fact, a very small percentage of the more than 100 million PayPal users have likely done that.

“That’s exactly why I say this is the year for trialing and learning,” Donahoe said, appropriately adjourning the interview with a bang of the hammer.

The results beat both the company’s own revenue forecast of $3.35 billion and analysts’ estimates of $3.32 billion.

In after-hours trading, the company’s stock was up 66 cents, or 2.2 percent, to trade at $31 a share.

The rebound is perhaps a relief since the company’s stock had been trading somewhat lower since it announced earlier this month that Scott Thompson, the president of PayPal, was leaving the company to become the CEO of Yahoo.

The company’s earnings also exceeded expectations. Its non-GAAP earnings of 60 cents a share, which excludes some non-cash items, beat analysts’ expectations of 57 cents a share. Internally, the company had forecast non-GAAP earnings between 55 and 58 cents a share.

On a GAAP basis, the company reported $2 billion, or $1.51 a share, in the fourth quarter, bolstered by a gain on the sale of the company’s investment in Skype.

Retailers during the holiday quarter can often report mixed results, depending on consumer demand during the business shopping season. EBay’s results are perhaps a good signal for the overall market since it is one of the first e-commerce providers to report year-end results.

Amazon, the e-commerce leader, will report Q4 results on Jan. 31.

For the full-year, eBay said revenue increased 27 percent to $11.7 billion and net income totaled $3.2 billion, up 79 percent over the prior year.

PayPal, one of eBay’s fastest-growing businesses, also reported a strong quarter.

The payments division said revenues in Q4 totaled $1.2 billion, up 28 percent from the year-ago period. A lot of that was driven by new accounts and the adoption of mobile payments.

As previously announced, the company said its mobile payment volume reached $4 billion in 2011, more than five times the mobile payment volume in the prior year. It also said that it added one million new accounts on average each month of the year.

EBay said its forecast for the first quarter will not be as robust, which typically happens as spending levels go back to normal. It expects revenues of up to $3.15 billion, with non-GAAP earnings per share of up to 51 cents a share.

Neil Ashe, who left his job running CBS Interactive in late 2010, has taken a job helming Wal-Mart Stores’ global online commerce unit.

The retail behemoth said that Ashe will become president and CEO of its Global eCommerce division, replacing the retiring Eduardo Castro-Wright. He will operate out of Wal-Mart’s Silicon Valley office in San Bruno, Calif., but will likely make a lot of trips to the company’s HQ in Bentonville, Ark. (Ashe does not have the U.S.-based e-commerce business; Walmart.com is run by Joel Anderson, who reports up through the Wal-Mart U.S. stores business.)

In an interview earlier today, Ashe said that he was “impressed by the company’s realization that the consumer is changing … and the commitment to global e-commerce.”

Noting that Wal-Mart stores see 200 million customers a week, he said the goal was to make the online experience as compelling as the offline one.

“There has to be almost an indifference between physical stores and e-commerce,” said Ashe. “The whole company committed to winning on the Internet.”

Since he left CBS, Ashe has been advising a variety of Web start-ups, including LivingSocial. Ashe joined the board of the Washington, D.C.-based social buying company last spring.

The job at Wal-Mart is a big one, especially given its up-and-down history in the online space. That includes the recent decision to stop selling MP3s from its Web site.

It has also stepped up its efforts, including a number of small acquisitions, such as mobile advertising start-up OneRiot and mobile app company Small Society.

But it did pay big bucks — reportedly $300 million — for social media platform Kosmix.

Ashe noted that Wal-Mart is indeed still dwarfed online by online dominator Amazon. “They are very innovative and strategically adept,” he said.

With 59 million monthly visitors to its U.S. Web site and an aim to go global, how Ashe navigates Wal-Mart’s path in the next years will be interesting to watch.

Here’s the official press release:

Walmart Selects Neil Ashe to Lead Global eCommerce

San Bruno, Calif., Jan. 16, 2012 – Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) today announced that Neil Ashe, 44, is the new president and CEO of the company’s Global eCommerce business, beginning today. Ashe was most recently president of CBS Interactive, where he led all online properties and also drove development of new ways to distribute programming produced by the media giant and its subsidiaries. Websites included CBS.com, CNET.com, CBSNews.com, and CBSSports.com, among others.

Ashe is replacing Eduardo Castro-Wright who announced his pending retirement in September and will assist in the transition.

“E-commerce is a great opportunity for us and we have a long-term vision to win,” said Mike Duke, Walmart’s president and CEO. “We are on track to create the next generation of E-commerce, combining the latest in online innovations with physical stores to give our customers a unique and seamless shopping experience.”

“We have an understanding of what these customers want, a trusted brand, 200 million weekly shoppers, more than 10,000 stores around the world, and the ability to make significant investments in talent and technology. We also have successful online businesses, including in the U.S., the U.K., Canada and Brazil. With all of this, it is clear that Walmart is the best- positioned retailer to deliver this multi-channel experience to consumers, many of whom are already connected to the world through smart phones and social media.”

Duke continued, “With his strong personal leadership skills, financial background and experience in successfully working within a major corporation to lead its Internet division, Neil is the ideal leader to help us build this business. He has led companies through all stages of growth and maturity. He also has a deep understanding of the interactive space and how to attract and convert online customers. Perhaps most importantly, much of Neil’s professional success has come through close collaboration and shared goals with his peers — a key attribute as we continue to integrate our online businesses across the company and with our physical stores.”

“Walmart is a special company,” said Ashe. “Growing up in East Tennessee, I have seen first-hand the difference it can make in the lives of its customers. E-commerce gives us a huge opportunity to expand and bring savings to many more people around the world. We have great things ahead of us and I am eager to get started and join the talented team already in place.”

As president of CBS Interactive, based in San Francisco, Ashe led the interactive content business with operations in the U.S., Europe and China. After leading the successful integration of CNET Networks with CBS, he and his team leveraged existing company assets to ramp up CBS entertainment content distribution online, including making CBS.com the largest television network site in the industry.

Prior to this, Ashe was CEO of CNET Networks, initially best known for providing technology-related information, product reviews and price comparisons through CNET.com. He also oversaw dramatic development in the company’s China division, taking it from a small magazine and events operator to a highly profitable, fast-growing online business. During his tenure, the company’s value increased from $100 million to $1.8 billion. Ultimately, Ashe led the sale of the company to CBS and became president of CBS Interactive at that time.

Earlier, Ashe founded a company focused on using the Internet to improve K-12 education in the U.S. Prior to this, he was a partner and managing director at private investment firm Crest Communications Holdings and, before that, was an associate at Smith Barney, the investment bank now part of Citigroup.

Ashe has an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School and a B.S. in Business Administration, with a major in Finance, from Georgetown University. He serves on the boards of LivingSocial, AMC Networks and the Georgetown University Board of Regents.

Over the past year, Walmart has made investments in capabilities and talent as it continues to build Global eCommerce. It has also further strengthened its position through the acquisition of small Internet specialty companies and continues to expand in new markets such as China and Brazil, including a minority stake in Chinese Internet retailer Yihaodian.

Consider this: The Republican winner of the Iowa Caucus race won by only eight votes. Mitt Romney received 24.55 percent of the total, while former Senator Rick Santorum took home 24.54 percent — a very narrow victory.

In the New Hampshire primary last week, Mitt Romney also won, this time by a larger margin.

But on Zazzle, where customers get to design customized products and sell them on its marketplace, U.S. voters are voting with their pocketbooks.

For example, interest in Rick Santorum exploded in January. The number of people searching for his apparel and other merchandise is already five times greater than it was during the entire month of December.

Some of his popular apparel includes a “Rick Santorum has a raging clue,” T-shirt, and the more straightforward “Rick Santorum 2012″ coffee mug.

Meanwhile, searches for Mitt Romney’s products are only three times higher over the same time period. A popular button for Romney declares. “Mitt is Legit.”

President Barack Obama has a little more diversity of products on offer, probably because he’s been in the spotlight for longer. There’s the regular assortment of T-shirts and pins, of course, and also mouse pads, iPhone covers, skateboard art and ties.

Not all of the gear is always positive; some items might reflect how much someone dislikes a candidate.

Every year, the Iowa caucus is used to gauge which candidates U.S. voters prefer at the time, even if the outcome does not result in the selection of a national delegate.

Similarly, Redwood City, Calif.-based Zazzle believes it has a big enough forum to conduct a meaningful poll of its own. Tomorrow, the company will kick off a poll that will analyze design and purchasing behavior up until the day before Super Tuesday, which falls on March 6 this election year.

In the past, Zazzle has often been used by Americans to cast their vote. On the site, more than 2.5 million custom political designs, and one million political clothing items have been sold to date.

“Whereas Twitter and Facebook reflect consumer opinions through text, sites like Zazzle are where the physical manifestation of ideas and opinions take place. This has been an accurate form of pre-determining political stories since the 2008 election,” said Josh Neuman, Zazzle’s head of political merchandising and analyses, in a statement.

For instance, the year before Barack Obama took office in 2008, 21,099 items Obama-related items were created on Zazzle, 73 percent percent of which were positive.

The final poll won’t be unveiled until March, but in the meantime, here are some other recent trends Zazzle has witnessed:

• Interest in Santorum has exploded. The number of people searching for Santorum merchandise in January is already five times greater than during the whole month of December.
• Romney is seeing three times as much traffic.
• In January, there’s been a dramatic surge in merchandise sales for Ron Paul, who currently outsells Obama by nearly three times.
• Obama merchandise continues to be a top seller, but 60 percent of the items are anti-Obama themed.
• People are still buying merchandise for dropped-out candidates, including Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann. The sales for either of these candidates are higher than those for Gary Johnson, who is still in the race.

The new campaign — set to the tune of “Let’s Stay Together,” by Al Green — is much more tame than last year’s ad. The 30-second spot focuses on creating family memories around campfires, swimming holes and hiking trails; memories that often can be made in or near homes — not in hotels.

HomeAway, which operates vacation-rentals marketplaces, including HomeAway.com, VRBO.com and VacationRentals.com, went out on a limb for its Super Bowl commercial last year. If the point was to generate buzz before filing for its initial public offering, it was a success.

But the Austin, Texas-based company ended up having to yank the ad after drawing criticism over a particularly disturbing image: In the commercial, a doll — which was obviously not a child — was thrown against a wall to demonstrate how cramped hotel rooms can be, compared to more spacious rental houses.

The updated — and more subtle — campaign will air in select markets during NBC’s broadcast of the 69th Golden Globe Awards. Following its debut, the spot will air on the Travel Channel, the Food Network, HGTV and other special promotions, including the Grammy Awards on Feb. 12, the Academy Awards on Feb. 26 and the “Survivor” finale.

Second time’s the charm?

In the past seven months, Fab has grown rapidly, registering 1.65 million users, who have purchased 750,000 products.

It now plans to grow even faster, with the help of this acquisition.

Both companies have a similar mission: To bring independent artists and craftsmen, who make aesthetically appealing and sometimes out-of-the ordinary items, to a large marketplace.

Fab.com does this mostly for home decor, and New York-based FashionStake does it mostly for fashion and apparel. The sites have the flavor of a Gilt Groupe, which sells high-end fashion at a discount, except they offer more undiscovered brands, at more reasonable prices.

In a blog post, Fab CEO Jason Goldberg said FashionStake co-founders Vivian Weng and Daniel Gulati will join the Fab company.

Goldberg did not disclose terms of the deal, but it’s possible that he tapped into a large cash reserve, which includes a $40 million round of capital raised last month from Andreessen Horowitz and others.

FashionStake, which launched in September 2010, has received investments from a number of players, including Battery Ventures, Forerunner Ventures and Gilt Groupe co-founder Alexis Maybank.

Last year, FashionStake acquired Moxsie, another retailer of independent fashion.

Ryan called AllThingsD this morning to clear the air after a report in BetaBeat painted a fairly grim picture of the situation.

BetaBeat reported this morning that as many as 170 employees would be laid off today; that Gilt Taste, the company’s high-end grocery site, was likely to be closed down; and that Jetsetter, its travel operations, was likely to be merged with Gilt City, its daily deal division.

On pretty much all accounts, Ryan declared not guilty.

“We are not closing down any businesses. We are not closing down Gilt Taste, and we aren’t merging Gilt City and Jetsetter,” he said.

Additionally, another new division, Park & Bond, which sells full-priced men’s clothing, is also doing well. “In its fifth month of business, Park & Bond did more revenue than any other business in its fifth month,” Ryan added.

The one grain of truth in all of it, he said, is that over the next couple of months, he expects to selectively trim staff by roughly 50 employees.

But for emphasis, he added, the company will still end up having more employees by the end of March than it does now.

“It’s pretty minimal in the scheme of having 900 employees,” he said. “Not only will we do that [have cutbacks], but we will continue to do that. What Gilt needs to be, and is doing, is to create a fantastic consumer experience while running an efficient company.”

He said the company achieved its goal of generating $500 million in June and now is setting its sights on transitioning the business from a money-losing organization to cash-flow break even this year.

He also said that Gilt Groupe, which raised $138 million in capital last May, is on track for an IPO, perhaps as early as the fourth quarter, but more likely in 2013.

“The timing feels about right, and we are on a steady progression,” said Ryan, who declined to give revenue estimates for this year because the company is in the sensitive lead-up to a public offering.

Ryan named two divisions that may see cuts over the next couple of months: Gilt Taste and Gilt City.

In October, Gilt City purchased BuyWithMe, and although it hired only 20-25 of the deal provider’s 190 employees, Ryan said they probably don’t need that many going forward now that the integration has been completed.

Additionally, he said there are some inefficiencies within Gilt Taste.

Ryan characterized the site as “doing great,” but said it will need fewer staffers now that it is up and running. At first, it needed to negotiate deals with dozens of vendors and shoot photos of the more than 1,000 products on the site.

Now that they’ve hit a baseline of items, they’ll probably add only a couple hundred new products a year, reducing the need for so much staff.

“There’s much less work to do there,” Ryan said. “With flash sales, you have to do that process every week, but in the full-priced business, there’s greater start-up costs. That’s part of the business.”

In particular, BetaBeat said Park & Bond President John Auerbach was likely to leave the company.

Ryan said there’s always the chance one of the top 15 executives could leave, whether it was their decision or the company’s, but that Auerbach is still working there as of now.

Although the season kicked off with a bang, there were fears that consumer confidence would fall as the end of the year approached. That did not happen, with people continuing to fill their virtual shopping carts until the very last minute; 10 individual days surpassed $1 billion in spending.

According to comScore, the final tally for online spending for the months of November and December was $37.2 billion, representing a 15 percent increase over last year.

ComScore tracks purchases made on Web sites from a fixed Internet connection, excluding spending done via mobile phones and tablets, so presumably the numbers could be higher.

While the numbers being reported sound positive, some analysts worry if they were enough to give giants like Amazon the growth rates needed to hit expectations. Wall Street analysts are expecting Amazon to post a fourth-quarter growth rate of 38 percent, which would mean it would have to be growing twice as fast as the average market.

But Chase Paymentech’s annual Cyber Holiday Pulse Index painted a rosier picture of the holiday season. Based on tracking 50 of the leading online merchants in the U.S., the report found that during the final two months of the year, transactions were up 37 percent and sales rose 25 percent.

One of the reasons for the huge gains, it said, was because Christmas fell on a Sunday this year, allowing merchants to guarantee shipping much later into the week and giving consumers more time to make online transactions.

To be sure, the increase in online shopping is coming from somewhere — most likely at the expense of traditional retail, which is expected to report a less impressive 4 percent growth rate this year.

“It’s clear that e-commerce continues to gain market share from traditional retail due to the attractiveness of the Internet’s convenience and lower prices,” said comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni. “Consumers were especially attracted to the deals and discounts available through digital channels -– particularly free shipping, which occurred on well over half of transactions this season.”

The most impressive finding of the season was that 10 individual days surpassed $1 billion in spending, compared to only one day in 2010.

Here is a list of the 10 biggest online shopping days in 2011, led by Cyber Monday:

(Image credit: iStockphoto.com/mbortolino)

The list is based on my own taste, and in no particular order, so feel free to share the ones that made you snicker the most.

Admittedly, they are much more bearable to watch now that the holidays are over and they no longer serve as a reminder for all of the things you have left to do.

So, sit back and enjoy!

Wal-Mart makes fun of the ugly Christmas sweater:

Target gets you into shape for fighting the crowds in its Black Friday commercial:

Apple, which was one of the biggest retail winners this holiday, demonstrated how Santa would use Siri:

EBay showed how its mobile application could avoid awkward gifting:

Best Buy fueled people’s competitive spirit in a game of Mom versus Santa:

And, finally, Amazon says it’s better to receive than give: