Cyber Monday Trumps Black Friday

Forget productivity, consumers returning to work after the Thanksgiving holiday set a record for online sales on the annual "Cyber Monday" this week. Consumers bought nearly 10 percent more items per order on Cyber Monday compared to last week's Black Friday and nearly 30 percent more than Cyber Monday in 2008, according to statistics compiled by Web analytics firm Coremetrics. Consumers also spent more per online order ($180.03 versus $130.24) over last year's Cyber Monday, led by apparel retailers.

The analysis was part of Coremetrics second annual Cyber Monday Benchmark Report that looked at online shopping in the U.S. through 12 a.m. Tuesday.

"What we've seen in the past week is that online sales have grown quite a bit, and that consumers are willing to shop late into the evening and early morning," John Squire, chief strategy officer at Coremetrics, told InternetNews.com. "Consumers respond to value. When there are discounts, free shipping and other offers, they open their wallets."

Coremetrics aggregates online shopping data from more than 500 retailers in the U.S. including big names like Macy's, Bloomingdales, Petco, Nordstrom, Office Depot, Williams Sonoma and QVC, though two of the biggest online sellers, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY), are not among its clients and not part of the report.

Other notable stats from Coremetrics report show Cyber Monday sales up 24.1 percent compared to Black Friday. Also, consumers spent more per online order ($180.03 versus $170.19) compared to Black Friday this year.

Specific segment analysis shows that apparel retailers and jewelry retailers reported the biggest jumps in the average dollar amount consumers spent per online order up 26.4 percent and 14.3 percent respectively.

Sports apparel and gear retailers reported an increase of nearly 55 percent in the number of new consumers visiting their sites. But the average dollar amount consumers spent per online order declined slightly by 3.1 percent.

Department stores also did a good job of attracting new consumers to their sites, reporting a 33 percent increase. However, Coremetrics' findings show average order value down nearly 10 percent.

Web sales are only a fraction of overall U.S. holiday sales, which are still dominated by brick and mortar outlets, but online shopping or e-commerce has seen steady growth particularly around the holiday season. Cyber Monday is a term coined in 2005 by Shop.org, the online division of the National Retail Federation, and it refers to promotions offered by retailers on the Monday following Thanksgiving.