Did you do any work yesterday? The digital till for thousands of online retailers who marketed the heck out of “Cyber Monday” suggests that no, you did not.
The online shopping orgy Monday was the largest in history, with a 16 percent jump over 2012, to $2.29 billion in sales, according to Adobe Systems (ADBE). IBM (IBM) said that research from its digital analytics division showed that Cyber Monday sales (PDF) increased 20.6 percent from a year ago, with the average order nearly $129, down 1 percent from 2012. Mobile sales jumped to 17 percent of all online sales, up 55 percent from Cyber Monday last year, according to IBM. Most of that buying was on tablets, not smartphones, both companies said.
Among retailers, however, the overall mood for the shopping season has been dismal, with spending down nearly 3 percent to $57.4 billion over the four days beginning on Thanksgiving, according to the National Retail Federation. Interestingly, more than 87 percent of consumers surveyed by the federation last week said they planned to use their computers at home to shop on Cyber Monday, with only 12 percent ‘fessing up to a bit of retail distraction at work.
Adobe says its online shopping data is based on analyzing nearly 900 million visits to 2,000 retailers’ websites on Cyber Monday and more than three billion visits since Thanksgiving Day. IBM’s data is based on aggregates from 800 U.S. retail web sites.
