No one’s ready to predict a holiday e-tail sales blowout — that would be crazy. But Black Friday spending surpassed last year’s numbers, and Kenneth Corbin over at InternetNews looks at what that might mean for the holiday season.

With the holiday shopping season kicking into high gear, online retailers are off to a healthy start, with sales on the day after Thanksgiving up 11 percent from last year.

On Black Friday, the unofficial kick-off of the holiday shopping season, consumers spent $595 million online, compared to $534 million the same day last year, according to online metrics firm comScore.

"Black Friday, better known as a shopping bonanza in brick-and-mortar retail stores, is increasingly becoming one of the landmark days in the online holiday shopping world," comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni said in a statement.

Fulgoni noted that the spike in sales could be partially attributed to the heavy discounts many retailers were offering Thanksgiving weekend as they court shoppers in what continues to be a sluggish economy. He said that the first workday after the holiday — known as Cyber Monday — and the early weeks of December would be the real test for the e-commerce season.

Read the Full Story

Do you have a comment or question about this article or other e-commerce topics in general? Speak out in the SmallBusinessComputing.com E-Commerce Forum. Join the discussion today!