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Cyber Monday Sales Surge Again

by Terrence O'Brien on November 30, 2009 at 05:20 PM

Since its official beginning in 2005, Cyber Monday (the Monday following Thanksgiving) has been one of the biggest online shopping days of the year. The Web counterpart to the decidedly brick-and-mortar Black Friday has grown in popularity every year, and has even lured more traditional retailers, such as Best Buy and Wal-Mart, to take part in that second day of steep discounting.

This year, sales got off to a quick start with 270 retail Web sites reporting a total of 4 million visitors per minute by 11:15 a.m., according to Internet tracking firm Akamai. That's an increase of 43-percent from the same time last year. Final numbers won't hit the news for a few days, but traffic generally spikes in post-work hours. According to the National Retail Federation (NRF) survey, about 96.5 million Americans plan to take part in the online deals.

Last year, Cyber Monday drew in about 85 million shoppers, according to the NRF -- already a huge boost from 2007. In 2008, those 85 million consumers spent almost $850 million, so it's not out of the question that this year's one-day revenue approaches $1 billion.

That substantial increase in spending, when combined with a rebound in sales this year on Black Friday, indicates that maybe Americans are not feeling the economic squeeze quite as badly this holiday season as they were the last. And that is unquestionably a good thing. [From: CNN Money]

Tags: business, cyber monday, CyberMonday, economy, hgg, shopping, top

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