• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, December 4, 2006

According to new comScore Networks data, Cyber Monday, which marks the first major spike in online holiday spending as people returned to work after the Thanksgiving weekend, saw slightly higher than expected gains. Cyber Monday sales totaled $608 million, up 26 percent versus the same day last year. During the first 27 days of November this year, total online retail spending reached $9.48 billion, marking a 24-percent increase versus the corresponding days in 2005.

Gian Fulgoni, chairman of comScore Networks, noted that "...$608 million in Online consumer spending on Cyber Monday... (makes) it the highest single day in retail e-commerce history and the first day ever to break the $600 million threshold... we fully expect several days in the coming weeks to eclipse the spending that occurred on Cyber Monday."

CyberMonday.com, saw consumers flood the site on its namesake day. The site attracted 300,000 U.S. visitors on Monday, or approximately the same number of visitors that PriceGrabber.com, one of the leading price-comparison shopping engines, draws in an average day.

"The online retail marketplace has become extremely competitive, and we're seeing that play out with some pretty significant discounting to win over consumers early in the holiday shopping season..." commented Mr. Fulgoni.

Nielsen//NetRatings, though, announced that unique visitors to the Holiday eShopping Index from home on Black Friday outnumbered unique visitors from work on Cyber Monday, with unique audiences of 19.2 million and 16.1 million, respectively.

Last year, Cyber Monday had the highest combined home and work traffic to the Index during the holiday season, with 27.7 million unique visitors. This year, Cyber Monday is again the day with the highest combined unique audience so far, with 29.5 million.

The top online shopping destinations from work on Cyber Monday were similar to those from home on Black Friday. eBay, Amazon and Wal-Mart Stores again took the top three spots.

But according to Hitwise, Thanksgiving Day trumps them both. Thanksgiving Day remains the peak day for retail traffic in market share of visits. Comparing Cyber-Monday 2006 to Thanksgiving Day this year, the index was down 33.87% and down 26.29% compared to Black Friday 2006.

For more information about the comScore report, please go here.