Ecommerce Holiday Shopping Up 5% on Cyber Monday

Cyber Monday ecommerce spending was up 5 percent year-over-year, ComScore reported on Wednesday. Holiday season retail ecommerce spending for the first 30 days of the November - December 2009 holiday season was up 3% year-over year, reaching $12.26 billion.

ComScore said Cyber Monday's 5-percent growth in sales versus year ago was driven primarily by a 6% increase in the number of buyers, reflecting consumers' increasing familiarity and comfort with online buying. The company also said average spending per buyer was down slightly.

However, the efforts by mass online retailers to grow sales may have an effect on their bottom line, and Overstock.com may be typical of many retailers this year. CEO Patrick Byrne told Internet Retailer that the company had never done so much discounting and said that while sales were up, profit margins were being "squeezed a bit."

Google's Retail blog said this year, Black Friday went global, reporting that the term "Black Friday" was the top rising search term in Brazil, Japan and Israel and the second-fastest rising term in France and Sweden within the "Shopping" category over the last 7 days (week ending Sunday, November 29).

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