Online sales of diamonds for Valentine’s Day grew 130% over last year and posted the largest rise in all online retail categories, according to a company that provides infrastructure services for the Internet. Online spending for jewelry increased 34%

“The growth in online sales for jewelry is a key indicator of increased consumer confidence in spending more money online,” said Trevor Healy, vice president, payment services, VeriSign, which processes more than 37% of North American e-commerce transactions and represents more than 127,000 online retailers. “With diamonds showing the highest increase in online revenue during the Valentine’s Day shopping season, we not only see that consumers are comfortable making big-ticket purchases online, but also buying sentimental and significant items through secured e-commerce sites.”

The diamonds category also held the highest single-item ticket price of $427.

The Valentine’s Day period (Feb. 1 – Feb. 14) accounted for $3.9 billion in online sales—a 30% increase when compared with the same time period in 2004, VeriSign says. All categories saw increases, among the leaders were greeting cards (50%), candy (25%), and flowers (16%).

The number of online transactions on Valentine’s Day jumped 349% compared to 2004.

JCK