Cyber Monday Sets Single-Day Online Sales Record

By JCK Online Staff -- JCK Online, 11/29/2006 1:02:00 PM

Online retail spending at U.S. Web sites (non-travel) for Cyber Monday totaled $608 million, up 26 percent versus the same day last year, making it the highest single day in retail e-commerce history and the first day ever to break the $600 million threshold, according to comScore Networks.

Cyber Monday marks the first major spike in online holiday spending as people returned to work after the Thanksgiving weekend.

"While it was certainly an historic achievement, the online holiday shopping season is just beginning to kick into high gear," said said Gian Fulgoni, chairman of the Reston, Virg.-based company which measures digital data. "Having analyzed and reported on online sales for more than five years, we fully expect several days in the coming weeks to eclipse the spending that occurred on Cyber Monday."

During the first 27 days of November this year, total online retail spending reached $9.48 billion, marking a 24 percent increase versus the corresponding days in 2005, comScore reports.

CyberMonday.com, Shop.org’s online hub for holiday season discounts, attracted 300,000 U.S. visitors on Monday, or approximately the same number of visitors that PriceGrabber.com, one of the leading price-comparison shopping engines, draws in an average day, comScore reports.

"The online retail marketplace has become extremely competitive, and we’re seeing that play out with some pretty significant discounting to win over consumers early in the holiday shopping season, much of which was advertised at CyberMonday.com," said Mr. Fulgoni. "While online sales have certainly seen a strong start to the holiday season, it will be interesting to see if all of this discounting ends up cutting into retailers’ profit margins."