Cyber Monday is the first day after Thanksgiving when employees are back in the office, where they make purchases for the holidays using their work computers. This year Monday proved to be an astounding success, with online sales reaching $1.251 billion. According to comScore Inc, an important web tracking firm, that number represents a 22 percent increase from last year’s Cyber Monday.
Another tracker, IBM Benchmark, said the increase was closer to 33 percent compared to the same day last year.
Department store and home goods retailers saw a huge surge in online business, with a 60 percent increase from last year for department stores and a 68 percent upward climb for home goods, as compared to Cyber Monday 2010.
Even last year Cyber Monday was worth over $1 billion in sales, the biggest online spending day in history. With the increase in the number of mobile devices with easy access to the internet, the expectation that Cyber Monday 2011 would top that mark was high.
“Cyber Monday was the biggest day of the year and the biggest day ever for online retailing in the U.S.,” said John Squire of IBM’s Smarter Commerce initiative.
Department stores such as Nordstrom, Macy’s and JC Penny have spent much time, effort and money on making their websites user friendly and reaching out to potential customers with online advertising and emails. It is clear these efforts have paid off well, according to Squire.