Robust Cyber
Monday, defying forecasts
Traffic was up and so was spending at online retailers
By Diego Vasquez
Dec 2, 2009
Black Friday saw mixed results for retailers, with more people coming out to shop but spending per person well down from last year.
There was nothing mixed about results for Cyber Monday. Sales and traffic were both up, according to retailers and web traffic measuring sites, following strong online numbers over the Thanksgiving weekend.
The results suggest that perhaps forecasters were wrong last month when they predicted that fewer people would be shopping on the web this holiday season. The thinking was that they prefer to find their bargains the old fashion way, by going from store to store.
According to Coremetrics, a market research company, sales rose 13.7 percent on Cyber Monday compared to 2008. The average amount spent per consumer shot up $50, to $180. That's compared to a $30 decline in the average spending on Black Friday, according to the National Retail Federation.
Orders were also up Monday, with people buying 30 percent more items per order this year than last, and 10 percent more than on Black Friday. Apparel and jewelry e-stores saw the biggest jumps.
Web measuring company Akamai reported that this year's Cyber Monday global retail traffic was running about 1 million better than last year at its peak, and the NRF said that traffic to its Cyber Monday site, which advertises special deals, was up 8 percent over last year, to nearly 16 million.
As with Black Friday, good deals seemed to drive much of the traffic. Retailers such as Bloomingdales, which doesn't usually offer coupons but did on Monday, saw a surge in visitors, and many sites had Cyber Monday links on their homepages touting the day's best deals.
Amazon, for example, had dozens of special offers for Monday only, including some targeted at different time zones.
Other etailers distributed coupons for 5 to 10 percent off already discounted prices, and some offered a variation on their Black Friday door buster sales, though web prices were up slightly from offline ones on Friday.
Interestingly, the very hallmark of Cyber Monday, which heralds the start of the online shopping season with a surge of shoppers logging on from work, was not in evidence Monday.
The NRF reports that lunchtime traffic was relatively light compared to past years, while early-morning and evening traffic was heavier than expected. That may be because, in this bum economy, no one wants to risk doing something at work that could irritate the boss.
The strong online sales should continue throughout the rest of the month, as many online retailers are still offering deals. In fact, sites such as Snapfish and Toys R Us are sending out special deals each day, ranging from free shipping to free personalization to discounts on particular items, hoping to keep surfers spending.
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