comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, reported holiday season retail e-commerce spending for the first 30 days of the November – December 2009 holiday season. For the holiday season-to-date, $12.26 billion has been spent online, marking a 3-percent increase versus the corresponding days last year. Cyber Monday reached $887 million in online spending, up 5 percent versus year ago, and matching the heaviest online spending day on record, December 9, 2008.

“We’ve seen an encouraging start to the online holiday shopping season and it would appear that retailers’ aggressive and early marketing efforts have so far succeeded in persuading consumers to open their wallets online,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. “Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday were atypically strong online sales days this year, and Cyber Monday has continued that trend by outperforming the season-to-date average growth rate and matching last year’s record day of $887 million in online spending. Now, it will be important to see if spending continues to grow over the balance of the season - because the heaviest spending day online typically occurs in mid-December.”

Cyber Monday Sales Growth Driven by Increase in Buyers

Cyber Monday’s 5-percent growth in sales versus year ago was driven primarily by an increase in the number of buyers, reflecting consumers' increasing familiarity and comfort with online buying, while average spending per buyer was down slightly, presumably a result of economic constraints. Specifically, the number of online buyers grew 6 percent to 8.7 million, while the average dollars spent per buyer declined 2 percent to $102.19.

Buying at Work Continues to Drive Cyber Monday Sales

On Cyber Monday this year, more than half of dollars spent online at U.S. Web sites originated from work computers (52.7 percent), representing a gain of 2.3 percentage points from last year. Buying from home comprised the majority of the remaining share (41.6 percent) while buying from international locations accounted for 5.8 percent.

“comScore data have shown that Cyber Monday online sales have always been driven by considerable buying activity from work locations,” added Mr. Fulgoni. “That pattern hasn’t changed. After returning from the long Thanksgiving weekend with a lot of holiday shopping still ahead of them, many consumers tend to continue their holiday shopping from work. Whether to take advantage of the extensive Cyber Monday deals offered by retailers or to buy gifts away from the prying eyes of family members, this day has become an annual ritual for America’s online holiday shoppers.”