Credit-crunched Americans appear to have turned to the internet for their Christmas shopping bargains this year, with the comScore research firm reporting “the second heaviest online spending day on record” on “Cyber Monday” this week.
ComScore says $846m was spent on Monday, up 15 per cent on last year and only beaten by the seasonally busier “Green Monday” in 2007, when $881m was spent on the second Monday in December.
The four-day weekend from Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, recorded a 13 per cent rise, although the holiday season from the beginning of November has seen a 2 per cent decline on last year to $12.03bn.
Shoppers surveyed by comScore said they felt there were more promotions and discounts online this year and only 7 per cent felt crowds were bigger in real-world malls compared to last year.
Nielsen Online reported yesterday that online traffic to its eShopping Index of 120 representative stores increased 10 per cent year-on-year on Monday, with 35.9m unique visitors.
“The combination of aggressive holiday sales and incentives, such as free shipping, across many of the major retailers, is helping drive a large number of consumers online this year,” said Ken Cassar, vice president, industry insights, Nielsen Online.
“If history is any indication, we expect that Monday, December 15 will be the peak day for online shopping traffic.”
Statistics from the Hitwise research firm did not support the weekend trend. It reported visits to 500 retail sites were down 1 per cent on a year ago on Cyber Monday.
Amazon, which introduced an iPhone app today, was the most visited with a 10.8 per cent share, with Wal-Mart second with 8.5 per cent of visits.
