Cyber Monday sales hit $1b mark

December 02, 2010|Associated Press

NEW YORK — Americans jumped on deals and promotions offered online on Cyber Monday, spending $1 billion and making it the busiest online shopping day ever, according to new data.

Research firm comScore Inc. says revenue rose 16 percent from a year ago to $1.03 billion on the Monday after Thanksgiving, the first one-day spending total above $1 billion ever.

Still, analysts cautioned that better results in stores and online during the busy Thanksgiving weekend don’t necessarily mean the whole holiday period will be strong. Shoppers might have just been lured by discounts, pulling forward sales from December.

A better picture will emerge today, when retailers release revenue figures for the month.

Since the beginning of November, online sales are up 13 percent to $13.55 billion, comScore said. Shoppers responded to the deals and bargains they found online, comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni said.

Meanwhile, another company that tracks online spending, IBM’s Coremetrics, found Cyber Monday sales rose 19.4 percent over last year. Cyber Monday was also PayPal’s biggest day ever. Online payments rose 19 percent from last year.

Though it is growing, online spending makes up only 8 to 10 percent of holiday spending.

According to ShopperTrak figures, revenue at stores in malls was flat over the weekend following Thanksgiving, but traffic rose 2.8 percent.

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