Cyber Monday Sales Top $2 Billion for First Time

2 Dec, 2014 By: Erik Gruenwedel

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With retail stores experiencing lighter foot traffic on Black Friday (Nov. 28), e-commerce sales more than picked up the slack through Cyber Monday (Dec. 1).

Cyber Monday reached $2.03 billion in desktop online spending, up 17% compared with the prior-year period, according to the latest data from comScore. The tally marked the heaviest e-commerce spending day in history and the only day ever to surpass $2 billion in sales.

The weekend after Thanksgiving also saw its first ever $1 billion online shopping day on Saturday (Nov. 29), while Sunday’s (Nov. 30) sales just missed the $1 billion mark. The weekend raked in $2.01 billion, up 26% compared with the same weekend a year ago. For the five-day period from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, online buying from desktop computers totaled $6.6 billion, up 24%.

Indeed, Walmart said Cyber Monday was the biggest online day in its history for orders. Consumers viewed more than 1.5 billion pages on Walmart.com between Thanksgiving and Dec. 1. Mobile accounted for approximately 70% of traffic to the website. Walmart is continuing its Cyber Monday discount pricing through Dec. 5.

The Black Friday weekend data underscores softening brick-and-mortar sales, but not consumer confidence in the economy, according to comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. He said the data suggests there is an accelerating shift to online buying as mobile phones spur increased “show-rooming” activity. The latter where consumers scout merchandise and big ticket items in retail stores and then purchase online with free or discounted two-day shipping.

“Any notion that Cyber Monday is declining in importance is really unfounded,” Fulgoni said in a statement. “The data we’re seeing suggests it may be more a change in shopping behavior than a lack of consumer demand.”

 

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