Black Friday is so Passe' - Retailers say online holiday sales remaining strong

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Online shoppers started buying on Thanksgiving and did not let up on so-called Cyber Monday, the day retailers designated for more discounts and promotions. By 6 p.m. on Monday, Eastern time, sales were 20 percent higher than during the same time period on the Monday after Thanksgiving a year ago, according to Coremetrics, a research firm owned by IBM that tracks online sales.


Cyber Monday was created five years ago to encourage people to shop online from work, where they could use a high-speed Internet connection that they lacked at home. It never was the busiest online shopping day. But now that broadband Internet connections have replaced dial-up access in most U.S. homes, fewer consumers are waiting until they get to their work computers to shop online.


The day has evolved into a way for online retailers to keep the spending that began in earnest on the day after Thanksgiving, known as Black Friday, going.


In fact, Shop.org, the online arm of the National Retail Federation, a trade group, said the percentage of people shopping online from work on Monday was expected to drop more than 1 percentage point from last year, to 12.1 percent.


Industry wide, online retail sales for the month through Nov. 26 were up 13 percent, to $11.6 billion, according to comScore. Consumer spending - both online and in stores - increased 6 percent over the four-day weekend to an average of $365, according to a survey of 4,300 Americans by the National Retail Federation.
Online retailers were careful to note that while the strength of sales on Friday and Monday may be indicators of the season, they are only the beginning. The peak shopping day for a number of online retailers comes in mid-December as shipping deadlines approach. Many companies continue to offer deals like free shipping throughout the holidays.

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