comScore has releases its analysis of e-commerce for 2009, and while there are some surprises, the overall trends outlined in the analysis should not come as a huge surprise.

While smaller online businesses reported drops in both sales and revenue, larger sites thrived thanks to the use of new technology and deals.

Online shops know what their customers are looking for. Over the holidays, they offered more deals than ever before, though the discounts were smaller than last year. They used social networks like Facebook and Twitter to publicize deals. They also adjusted to free shipping becoming “another fact of life,” in the words of Gian Fulgoni, chairman of comScore.

Thirty six million people visited coupon sites in December to get discount codes for e-commerce sites. Private, limited-time sale sites, led by HauteLook and Gilt, had huge increases in traffic and attracted a surprisingly broad cross-section of shoppers.

Mom-and-pop shops online lost business last year as customers flocked to the big sites like Amazon.com and HSN.com, probably because those sites could afford to keep advertising during the recession, Mr. Fulgoni said.

One of the surprises: online buying of apparel fell, as did the sales of home and garden supplies, furniture, video games, flowers and toys. Check out this NY Times Bit Blogs article to find out what was selling, and much more.