When millions of Americans began their holiday shopping in November, the top-gaining retail categories were toys, consumer electronics and mall sites, each posting strong gains of more than 25% compared to October, according to comScore’s Media Metrix service.

comScore executive vice president Jeff Hackett said the holiday shopping season got off to a strong start in November as many Americans looked to cash in on early shopping promotions and discounts, "Savings still appear to be a priority for consumers this season, as observed by the increase in visitors to Coupon sites, especially around the time of Black Friday and Cyber Monday," added Hackett.

Toy sites posted the strongest gains in November, growing 34% to 28.9m visitors followed by consumer electronics sites with an increase of 28% to 59.1m visitors, as flat panel TVs, e-readers and tablets continue to be popular items this holiday season, the research firm said.

At the third place stood luxury items as 24m Americans browsed jewellery, luxury goods and accessories sites saw an increase of 23%.

Topping the top 50 properties list were Google Sites in November with 186.7m visitors, followed by Microsoft Sites with 175.5m and Yahoo! Sites with 174.5m. Amazon Sites jumped to fifth place with 112.9m visitors.

Leading the top 50 November ad focus rankings was Google Ad Network with a reach of 92.8% of Americans online, followed by Yahoo! Network Plus with 86.3% and AOL Advertising 84.9%, AT&T AdWorks 83% and ValueClick Networks 81.8%.