• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, December 3, 2014

Consumers spent $2.038 billion from desktop computers on Cyber Monday, up 17% compared with a year ago, The weekend after Thanksgiving also saw its first billion-dollar online shopping day on Saturday, while sales on Sunday fell short of $1 billion.

Saturday and Sunday combined posted $2.012 billion, 26% compared with the same weekend last year. For the five-day period from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, online buying from desktop computers totaled $6.6 billion, up 24% versus last year.

Custora said the strong growth for the weekend was driven by mobile shopping, email marketing, and Google search. E-commerce revenue rose more than 15% on Cyber Monday 2014 compared with the year-ago day. Shopping on smartphones and tablets accounted for more than a fifth of online shopping Cyber Monday 2014 -- about 21.9% of orders.

About 18.9% of sales came through consumers searching the Internet for products, and 18.5% through paid search on Black Friday. Cyber Monday saw a similar trend, with email marketing driving 23.9% of orders, search 18.8%, and paid search 16%. During the holiday weekend, email marketing generated 23.1% of orders, search 19.4%, and paid search 17%, per Custora.

IBM Digital Analytics Benchmarking reported that total sales on Cyber Monday rose 8.5% year-on-year compared with 20.6% YoY in the year-ago period with average order value falling 3.5% YoY to $124.21.  Mobile sales rose 27.6%, and iOS devices continued to lead in mobile shopping with traffic more than twice -- and sales nearly four times -- that of Android devices during Cyber Week.   

Adobe reported that consumers spent 16% more than the prior year on Cyber Monday, but 25% less YoY on Thanksgiving Day and 24% less YoY on Black Friday. The top 25 retailers had strong online sales, rising 25% year on year. Each of the 25 drove more than $30 million in sales, per reports.  

Monetate also reported that Cyber Monday remains the biggest online holiday shopping day of the year with 49,269,442 sessions, and 11.80% compared with 2013. Sales rose 8.30% with an 8.30% increase in conversion rates, and 7% increase in revenue per session.

Interestingly, Salesforce Marketing Cloud findings point to 157,000 conversations from retailers and celebrities making their last sales effort on social networks. The most talked about products included electronics, gadgets and clothing. Some 14,000 conversations were mentions of weak sales reported by retailers during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Top hashtags on Cyber Monday were #CyberMonday at 360,000 posts; #Amazon, 10,500 posts; and #OtherTech, 6,900 posts, per Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

"Woman with Laptop and Credit Card in front of Christmas tree" photo from Shutterstock.