This past weekend, millions of people shunned sleep, endured the elements and trekked miles and miles to retailers all over to take part the biggest shopping stretch of the year.

Others took a different approach.

While retailers across the country are rejoicing at a strong consumer showing all around (an estimated 212 million shoppers this year), online sales numbers are showing tremendous growth and this year accounted for a third of the holiday weekend shoppers, the most ever according to the National Retail Federation.

Coremetrics, an IBM company, estimates that online sales rose 33 percent on Thanksgiving, 16 percent on Black Friday and 19.4 percent on Cyber Monday from totals last year. Other statistics of note include an average consumer online order of $194.89, an 8.3 percent gain from 2009, and luxury goods sales increasing 24.3 percent over that time.

It probably shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone with a pulse on the increasing reliability of the internet that more consumers would turn to the internet for their shopping needs. It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone at all that more people would go that route especially with horror stories of early morning Black Friday shopping which usually includes more than a few fights, injuries and even deaths. Why deal with that sort of insanity when you can accomplish the same mission in the comfort of your own PJ’s?

“Online shopping is increasingly becoming the refuge of those preferring to avoid the crowds and long lines,” ComScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni said in a statement. “The $648 million in online spending this Black Friday represents the heaviest online spending day of the season-to-date and a solid increase over last year’s Black Friday.”

The turnout for this year’s online sales should guarantee a heavier emphasis on online shopping deals next year, which is good news for the rising population of virtual consumers. The growing reputation of Cyber Monday made it a can’t miss event, and spurred it to 31 percent more online sales than Black Friday.

Like anything else, the more tech-savvy the population gets, the better off online markets thrive. This also bodes well for the ever-booming online advertising market, including the search engines that are widely responsible for leading users to the products and services they seek.

The train doesn’t stop here. All eyes will remain on the e-commerce landscape to see if those trends continue through the remainder of the holiday home stretch. While in-store shopping isn’t in any danger of falling by the wayside, online merchants may be able to grab a sizable chunk of the pie in the next few years.