Story highlights
ComScore: Cyber Monday was the biggest U.S. online shopping day ever
Consumers spent $1.25 billion on Monday, the research says
Some retailers saw a Cyber Monday spike even without offering big discounts
Americans’ clicking fingers must be sore.
Analysts have begun providing their final tallies for Cyber Monday sales, which found that people piled more in their virtual shopping carts than ever before.
Monday was the highest-grossing online shopping day in U.S. history, with spending reaching $1.25 billion, according to market research firm comScore. That’s up 22% from the previous record, which was last year’s Cyber Monday.
Online shopping for the month of November has hit $15 billion, a 15% increase compared to last year, comScore says.
Discounting efforts by some online retailers, including Amazon.com and Apple, in the hopes of bringing some of the mall’s Black Friday magic to the Web appear to have paid off. With a 26% jump over last year, the day after Thanksgiving saw the highest increase in spending compared to 2010 than any other period in November, according to comScore. However, online spending on Cyber Monday still outpaced Black Friday by a healthy margin, the research says.
Even without significantly slashing prices, some retailers saw a jump in customers coming to their websites on Monday. For example, Sony saw a dramatic increase in traffic and sales on Monday. Sony Electronics President Phil Molyneux said many Americans may have overcome some concerns about the struggling economy.
“There’s a pent-up demand from consumers,” Molyneux told a roomful of reporters in San Francisco on Tuesday. “There’s a demand, and consumers need to feel that they can spend again.”
They seem to be feeling it, and their digital wallets are feeling lighter.
