This year, Cyber Monday may have been even bigger than Black Friday. According to CNN, early reports suggest that Americans shopped more enthusiastically online for holiday bargains than they did in stores on Black Friday. It’s not exactly a shock to me; getting up early and dealing with crowds versus sleeping in and shopping from bed? Um, hello.
The numbers may also be good news for our sluggish economy. Cyber Monday sales rose 14% this year compared to 2008 and consumers also bought nearly 30% more items per order versus last year, according to research firm Coremetrics.
Also, the firm said shoppers bought 10% more items per order online than they did in stores on Black Friday. I think sometimes it’s easy to add items into your online cart because you want to work up to the threshold for free shipping, and you also can’t physically see the items piling up in your cart or weighing you down with shopping bags. But it could also be a result of how convenient it is to get all your shopping done at once and not make several trips to stores.
Clothing and jewelry e-tailers were the most popular shopping destinations on Cyber Monday. Although department stores saw a 33% increase in traffic to their Web sites, the average order volume actually fell 10% versus last year, the report said.
It’s not too late to score online deals. Wal Mart, Amazon and Toys R Us are just a few examples of stores continuing their discounts throughout the holiday season!
