Comcast’s just published its survey of consumer spending for the Cyber Monday that’s just passed: It was the single biggest day ever for shopping online, the first to surpass a billion dollars in U.S. spending. It proves shopping has changed forever.
According to ComScore’s research, November 2010 saw $13.6 billion dollars of e-commerce from U.S. consumers, up 13% on the same figure for last year. Fast Company reports that Cyber Monday itself, which is largely an “invented” sales window, brought to us by the rise of the Internet, became the biggest online shopping day ever with $1.03 billion dollars being spent–the first day to beat the billion dollar-a-day figure.
The Cyber Monday boom was possible since buyers spent more on average than they did last year (12% more) and the total number of buyers rose by 4%, to 9 million people.
Consumers even spent more on average per transaction (up 10%) meaning that the sales figure wasn’t being distorted by one or two particular special deals, and they performed more transactions–up 6% versus 2009.
This means they’re really embracing the idea of Cyber Monday itself. To put the figure in context, online spending on Black Friday–the traditional sales holiday–was around $648 million dollars, or about two thirds of Cyber Monday’s total, and up only 9% versus last year.
True, Black Friday is traditionally a day for in-store sales, but the trend is undeniable.
Photo by f_sandor/photofunia.