Cyber Monday keeps reputation as 2010 sales jump nearly 20 percent

by Steve Ragan - Nov 30 2010, 14:50

Cyber Monday, the day everyone traditionally hits the Web looking for holiday deals, has once again proven it's the largest shopping day of the year for online retailers. Specifically, figures from IBM Coremetrics’ third annual Cyber Monday Benchmark Report show a 19.4 percent growth in online bargain hunting when compared to 2009.

According to IBM Coremetrics, 2010 delivered a sales boost of nearly 20 percent to E-Commerce, and an eight percent increase to the average order value. Last year, a typical online spending spree would run to about $180.03 USD; this year it was up to $194.83 USD.

While this doesn’t look like much, an eight percent push translates into huge profit margins for many of the medium sized and 'mom and pop' operations online. Value items also earned a boost this year, as sales of luxury goods shot up 24.3 percent over 2009.

“Cyber Monday came in as the biggest shopping day of the year so far,” said John Squire, chief strategy officer at IBM Coremetrics.

“Consumers this year appear much more willing to open their wallets and are turning to online stores for the convenience of shopping wherever and whenever they like, but also as their primary source of information about products and inventory levels,” he added. “Retailers have done an exceptional job across the board of appealing to consumers with highly personalized promotions and a slew of free shipping promotions.”

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is where the bricks and mortar businesses usually shine, offering door-busting deals to those who camp outside the stores waiting for the 12:00 a.m., 3:00 a.m., or 5:00 a.m. opening.

Over the years, as sales monitoring reported trends in Web traffic, many larger retailers have started to capitalize on their Black Friday deals, by offering savings via Internet sales hubs as a way to collect more income.

While this worked for some, Cyber Monday is still king. Coremetrics’ report noted that online sales were up 31 percent when compared to Black Friday. Another interesting metric measured centers on mobile devices. On Cyber Monday, 3.9 percent of the holiday shoppers visited a retailer’s site using a mobile device.

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