Record $1.5 Billion Cyber Monday Follows $1 Billion in Black Friday Sales Online

Online spending on Cyber Monday set a record, with $1.465 billion in sales, the most ever spent online in a single day, according to comScore. Monday’s receipts were up 17 percent over Cyber Monday 2011, comScore said, and it was the second day this holiday season -- ahead of Black Friday -- that e-commerce revenue topped $1 billion, comScore said. To date, the 2012 holiday season, defined by comScore as Nov. 1-26, has racked up online sales of $16.4 billion, up 16 percent from last year’s corresponding dates of Nov. 3-Nov. 28, it said.

Despite increased brick-and-mortar competition on Thanksgiving, online sales Thursday soared 32 percent over last year to $633 million, comScore said. Friday’s $1 billion in online sales were up 28 percent over Black Friday 2011, and Saturday/Sunday weekend e-commerce sales of $1.2 billion were a 15 percent improvement over the 2011 Black Friday weekend, it said.

This week’s results countered news reports suggesting Cyber Monday might be “declining in importance,” said comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni. But with the promotional holiday period having begun earlier this year, uncertainty over the coming days lingers, and it’s up to “attractive and continuing” retail promotions “to boost sales for the remainder of the week,” he said.

Digital content and subscriptions led the Cyber Monday sales surge with year-over-year growth of 28 percent, comScore said. Smartphone sales grew at 24 percent, and tablets came in a close third with 22 percent growth over 2011, it said. The videogames, console and accessories category grew 18 percent year over year, it said, followed by jewelry and watches posting 17 percent growth.

Cyber Monday shopping dollars spent at U.S. websites divided about evenly between home (including colleges) and work locations, comScore said, with office-based shopping down 3 percent from last year. Outside of the U.S., shopping from U.S. websites accounted for 5.7 percent of sales, it said.

Meanwhile, PayPal’s global mobile payment volume soared 190 percent Monday over Cyber Monday 2011, according to Claudia Lombana, PayPal’s shopping specialist, on a company blog. Payment volume on Cyber Monday outperformed Black Friday this year by 44 percent, she said. The busiest hour in the U.S. for shopping overall using PayPal was noon-1 p.m. PST on Cyber Monday, and an hour later for shopping with mobile devices, she said. Top PayPal purchasing cities were Houston, Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, she said.

PayPal parent eBay said sales made with mobile devices doubled Monday in the U.S. over Cyber Monday 2011.