Cyber Monday Enters Stage with a Roar

The newly coined phrase 'Cyber Monday', which refers to online sales on the Monday following Thanksgiving weekend, lived up to its promise. Visits to online retail sites shot up 50 percent compared to the previous month, and increased 20 percent compared to the previous Monday, reports Akamai Technologies.

At 8 a.m. Eastern time, some 550,000 people were visiting one of 200 global e-commerce sites. By noon, the number climbed to over a million, peaking at more than 1.8 million at 3:30 p.m. Eastern time, according to the Akamai Net Usage Index for Retail, which provides an aggregate view of total visitors per minute to more than 200 global e-commerce sites.

One site that benefited from the increased flow in traffic was jeweler Ice.com. The site saw sales soar 94 percent over the same day last year while traffic rose 82 percent, a record-breaking day for the e-talier.

However, according to vice president of marketing Pinny Gniwisch, quoted in Internetretailer.com, the day will not necessarily be the busiest of the year. Just as Black Friday is not the biggest offline shopping day, some online retailers expect their peak day to be around December 12, the site reports

Ice reported heavy traffic the following day as well, leading Gniwisch to expect a 'Cyber Tuesday'.

“I believe most people who are shopping online are shopping from their offices,” he told Internetretailer. “They get to the office Monday after a long weekend, there is a ton of e-mail and they are busy getting through everything that has piled up. Then on Tuesday, they go shopping. We are seeing that.”

Gniwisch notes that, spurred by two promotions including free shipping on any size order and a 10 percent discount on items promoted at the checkout, Ice sold out of all its Cyber Monday specials. To keep the momentum going, Ice, number 178 in the Internet Retailer Top 400 Guide to Retail Web Sites, is planning additional holiday promotions, including a gift with purchase, which it intends to launch next week and keep running until the 20,000 gift items earmarked for the promotion run out.

Depending on how its numbers stack up over the next two days, and pending an analysis of whether free shipping, normally offered only on purchases of $150 and above, affected average order size, Ice will decide whether or not to extend free shipping on all orders further into the season, adds Gniwisch.

Price comparison sites also witnessed increased traffic. Google and Yahoo Search sent 25 percent more visitors to the ten leading shopping comparison sites during the week, according to Hitwise. Shopping.com reports that traffic increased 30 percent compared to the Monday following Thanksgiving a year ago, with more than 3.4 million unique shoppers. Eight out of the 10 most sought after gifts were electronics, with the Apple iPod Nano leading the pack.

PriceGrabber.com reported an 87 percent year-over-year increase in referrals on Cyber Monday. Jewelry was one of the hottest categories, increasing 211 percent, after apparel (up 394 percent), and home and garden (up 296 percent). Sporting goods and electronics trailed behind.

But, with all due respect to Cyber Monday, the Friday that opened the weekend was as almost as busy. eBay topped the online retailers list with 9.5 million visitors on Friday, followed by Amazon.com with 4.6 million, Wal-Mart with 3.4 million, Target with 2.9 million and BestBuy.com with 2.1 million, Nielsen/NetRatings reported.

Consumer spending at U.S. e-tailer sites is expected to exceed $19 billion during the November - December holiday season, a 24 percent increase over last year, predicts online analyst firm comScore Networks.