Skip to main content

Cyber Monday: Online shoppers set single-day spending record

cyber monday online shoppers set single day spending record screwed
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Black Monday may have been a dud for U.S. retailers, but Cyber Monday saw record spending by online shoppers.

Sales for the day hit $2.04 billion, up a sizable 17 percent on last year, research firm comScore reported on Tuesday.

It’s the first time online spending in the U.S. has exceeded $2 billion in a single day of shopping, with sales for the five-day period from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday hitting $6.6 billion in all, marking an increase of 24 percent over last year, comScore said.

“Any notion that Cyber Monday is declining in importance is really unfounded, as it continues to post new historical highs and reflects the ongoing strength of online this holiday season,” comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni said in a release detailing the stats.

He added that while slow Black Friday sales led some commentators to point to a weakness in the consumer economy, what may actually be happening is “an accelerating shift to online buying as mobile phones spur increased showrooming activity. The data we’re seeing suggest it may be more a change in shopping behavior than a lack of consumer demand.”

While data from IBM suggested a slightly smaller increase in online spending for Cyber Monday compared to last year – 8.5 percent – it agreed with comScore that the figures set a new record for single-day shopping online.

The fact that many big-name retailers started running online deals earlier than usual this year suggests that had they saved them till Cyber Monday, the sales figures for December 1 would’ve been even higher.

“Consumers are not holding back their purchases for deals on certain days anymore and that trend is becoming increasingly clear,” Jay Henderson, strategy program director at IBM, told Reuters.

How was your Cyber Monday shopping experience? Snag any standout deals?

Editors' Recommendations

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Drunk shoppers spend $48B per year while intoxicated, mostly on Amazon
amazon black friday deals 2

Drunk shoppers on average spend more than $400 per year on items purchased while intoxicated, equivalent to an over $48 billion industry, and Amazon is apparently the biggest beneficiary.

A survey carried out by The Hustle revealed that waking up with a hangover plus a confirmation receipt for a purchase while drunk is actually a pretty common thing in the United States. More than 2,000 alcohol-imbibing American adults participated in the survey, which revealed several interesting tidbits about drunk shoppers.

Read more
The 5 best websites like Craigslist in 2024

For years, Craigslist has been the go-to website for scoring a free sofa or finding an apartment. But there are plenty of other alternatives to Craigslist that do an equally fine job, oftentimes with a more attractive interface and fewer spam postings. The 5 best Craigslist alternatives are:

Facebook Marketplace
OfferUp
Locanto
Mercari
Recycler

Read more
How to stop spam emails in Outlook, Gmail, and more
A person sitting on the grass and taking notes at a laptop.

Spam and other unwanted emails are a nuisance, and it can seem like keeping them away from your inbox is a losing battle. But while you won't be able to prevent every piece of spam from landing in your inbox, it is possible to significantly reduce the number of messages that show up.

In this guide, we'll show you how to use filters, blocking, and spam reporting features to help stop spam from invading your inbox. We'll also go over a few more tips on how to reduce unwanted messages overall.
How to stop spam in Gmail
If you use Gmail, the most popular email client, you will eventually start getting spam. Here are our two favorite ways to deal with it.
Block spam in Gmail

Read more