Cyber Monday spending sets record at $733 million

Figure 21% higher than 2006 period

By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 11/27/2007

NOV. 27 | As expected, consumers increased their online spending to a record high on Cyber Monday, but the final tally outpaced projections by about 4.3%, to $733 million, according to research group ComScore.

In the days leading up to Monday’s rush of Web-only deals, ComScore predicted more than $700 million in consumer spending, which also would have equaled a one-day record for Web retail activity.

The day’s $733 million in online sales also topped 2006 Cyber Monday sales by 21% and towered over average daily online spending during the preceding four weeks by 84%, according to ComScore.

Amazon.com and Wal-Mart.com were the top performing retailers on this year’s Cyber Monday. They enjoyed traffic increases to their Web sites of 50% and 103%, respectively, over the retailers’ average daily online visitors during the last four weeks.

Wal-Mart continued to offer exclusive deals on its site on Tuesday.

Leading up to Cyber Monday, Amazon promoted its popular Amazon Vote feature, which allows customers to vote on preferred product deals, but the etailer chose not to heavily call out special deals on its home page.

“Cyber Monday is an important day during the online holiday shopping season, representing the first significant spike in holiday spending activity,” said Gian Fulgoni, ComScore chairman. “Cyber Monday once again set a record, with $733 million in sales, the first time a single day of online activity has broken the $700 million threshold. While that makes it the heaviest online shopping day on record, we expect that a number of individual shopping days during the coming weeks will surpass the Cyber Monday total, with some days potentially surpassing $800 million.”