Internet marketers who prepared promotions for Monday's major shopping event likely saw their efforts pay off. According to new data from comScore, Cyber Monday sales exceeded $1 billion, making it the first day to ever surpass the billion-dollar threshold.
The number of online Cyber Monday buyers increased 4 percent over last year to 9 million. The number of dollars per buyer and transactions per buyer increased as well, with each consumer spending an average of $114 (12 percent more than last year) and conducting 1.9 transactions (a 2 percent increase over Cyber Monday 2009). These figures are supported by Coremetric's Cyber Monday benchmark study, which Brafton reported boded well for the holiday shopping season.
ComScore believes consumers who shopped from the office drove the overall rise in sales. The majority of Cyber Monday spending occured at the workplace, with 48.9 percent of dollars spent originating from work computers. This seems to confirm Brafton's earlier report that 70 million workers were expected to shop online during the workday on Cyber Monday.
The shopping event's impressive ecommerce results correspond with overall gains in online 2010 holiday spend. To date, comScore says $13.55 billion has been spent online during November and December – a 13 percent increase over the same period last year.
Marketers hoping to catch a share of consumers' holiday gift budgets should consider investing in targeted promotions this season. Gian Fulgoni, comScore's chairman, says it's "important to note that some of the early strength in consumer spending is almost certainly the result of retailers' heavier-than-normal promotional and discounting activity at this early point in the season."
Brands that advertise their holiday sales on social channels could attract buyers this season. As Brafton recently reported, 30 million Americans say ads on social media influence their purchase habits.
