reported over the weekend, U.S. online shoppers spent $648 million in online sales on Black Friday, which was a 9 percent increase from last year and also set records for the heaviest spending day in e-commerce history. For the holiday season-to-date, the company reports that $13.55 billion has been spent online, which is a 13 percent increase comapared to the same period last year.

comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni said in a statement that the “early strength in consumer spending is almost certainly the result of retailers’ heavier-than-normal promotional and discounting activity at this early point in the season.” It should be interesting to see of retailers continue to promote discounts and sales as we near the holidays.

The record-breaking billion dollar day was primarily attributed to an increase in the average spending per buyer (up 12 percent) as opposed to the number of buyers which only grew by 4 percent to 9 million. The average spending per transaction grew 10 percent to $60.05, while the total number of transactions increased 6 percent to 17.1 million.

Of course CyberMonday’s sales are helped by the fact that many consumers can shop online from work. Nearly half of dollars spent online at U.S. Web sites originated from work computers (48.9 percent). That’s actually a decline of 3.8 percentage points from last year. Buying from home comprised the majority of the remaining share (45.4 percent) while buying at U.S. Web sites from international locations accounted for 5.8 percent of sales.

The dramatic increase in spending isn’t entirely surprising. The economy is in a slightly better position than last year and retailers are continuing to mark down goods and promote these deals as well. comScore forecasted a few weeks ago that online spending for the holiday season would reach $32.4 billion, which is up 11 percent from last year. But with the record-breaking Cyber Monday and Black Friday spending, this number could increase as the weeks pass.

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Authors: Leena Rao

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