Cyber Monday Sales Up Just 8.5% As Consumers Spread Shopping

(IDEX Online) – U.S. online sales rose by 8.5 percent on Cyber Monday, with growth in sales declining as consumers spread out their purchases rather than being attracted by one-day special events.

That compares with a 20.6-percent rise in online sales on Cyber Monday last year earlier, according to a report by IBM. Online sales on Cyber Monday is typically the busiest day for Internet shopping as people return to work after the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

The modest growth in sales also reflects an earlier start to the year-end shopping season, with Amazon.com Inc. and other online retailers offering online deals before Black Friday, when stores traditionally began offering holiday discounts. Internet sales last Saturday and Sunday jumped 17 percent from the same weekend in 2013, according to IBM.

Analysts said that with consumers realizing it’s a season of shopping, and with deals being spread out from late November to Christmas, people are turning shopping from a day-long occasion to a month-long occasion.

Online giant eBay posted a 19-percent jump in sales on Cyber Monday, while Amazon reported a 12-percent increase, according to ChannelAdvisor Corp. Meanwhile, Wal-Mart said its website took a record number of orders on Cyber Monday.

As expected, orders made on smartphones and tablets rose from a year before, accounting for about 20 percent of e-commerce sales, compared with 17 percent last year, according to IBM.

The retail industry in general had a relatively poor start to holiday shopping on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, with spending dropping an estimated 11 percent over the weekend from a year before, the National Retail Federation reported.

It was the second consecutive year that sales declined during the post-Thanksgiving Black Friday weekend, which is typically characterized by long lines and frenzied crowds seeking deals on electronic goods.