It seems this year that online retailers saw a significant spike in sales online on “Cyber Monday” this year spending $733 million making it the first time a single day of online retail spending broke the $700 million threshold.  That makes it a 17-percent gain from last year’s totals and an 84-percent increase from normal daily online spending from the four previous weeks.

With the internet being the choice of the future for consumers during the holiday season, we saw a 38-percent increase in the number of people shopping online.  Also, more people visited online retailers on Cyber Monday (32.5 million) than stores on Black Friday (28.8 million).

With 44-percent of internet users on Cyber Monday shopping online, the retailer who saw the largest number of visitors was Amazon (26% gain from last year) and six of the top ten retail sites saw their visitor numbers double compared to the four preceding weeks.  Other retailers who saw an increase in online visitors were Wal-Mart, Target, Dell and Best Buy. Although online retailers saw significant increases to the amount of online, only 6-percent of internet users actually made a purchase on Cyber Monday. Also, despite the increase in online buyers from 2006, consumers spent 12-percent less this year than last. This decline could be credited to two factors—deeper and broader price discounts offered by online merchants this year and the fact that “new Cyber Monday buyers” tended to spend less online than returning buyers.

Regardless, the year’s stats are in and consumers are looking to the internet more than stores for their holiday shopping this year.

Non-Travel (Retail) Spending 2007 Holiday Season To Date vs. Corresponding Days* in 2006
Total U.S. - Home/Work/University Locations (Billion $)
2006  2007 Pct Change
November 1 - 26  $9.14 $10.74 17%
Thanksgiving Day (November 22) $0.21 $0.27 29%
"Black Friday" (November 23) $0.43 $0.53 22%
"Cyber Monday" (November 26) $0.61 $0.73 21%
Source: comScore, Inc., November 2007* Corresponding Shopping Days, Not Calendar Days

 

Top 10 Retail Sites (Ranked By Visitors) on Cyber Monday
Total U.S.  Home/Work/University Locations
Retail Site Percent Change vs. Average Daily Visitors during 4 Weeks Preceding Cyber Monday
Amazon Sites 50%
Wal-Mart 103%
Target Corporation 86%
Dell 106%
Best Buy Sites 110%
Yahoo! Shopping 85%
Apple Inc. 5%
Overstock.com 139%
Circuit City Stores, Inc. 136%
MSN Shopping 261%
Source: comScore, Inc, November 2007

 

Online Non-Travel (Retail) Holiday Consumer Spending
Total U.S. Home/Work/University Locations Billion $
2006 2007  Pct Change
January - October $77.5 $93.6 21%
Holiday Season (Nov-Dec) $24.6 $29.5* 20%*
 Source: comScore, Inc., November 2007   *comScore forecast