Cyber Monday pulls in more online purchases than Black Friday, report says

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Cyber Monday pulled in 31.1% more online sales than Black Friday this year, according to a report from research firm Coremetrics.

This year’s Monday-after-Thanksgiving Internet sales also generated 19.4% more purchases than last year’s, Coremetrics reported.

One of the keys to the increase in shoppers participating in Cyber Monday sales this year was the move by many major retailers to offer free shipping and other aggressive discounts to lure consumers, John Squire, chief strategy officer of Coremetrics, a research firm owned by IBM, said in a statement.

‘Consumers this year appear much more willing to open their wallets and are turning to online stores for the convenience of shopping wherever and whenever they like,’ he said.

According to Coremetrics, the average online shopper spent about $194.89, up from $180.03 last year, for an increase of 8.3%.

Affluent shoppers drove sales of luxury items, such as jewelry, up 24.3% over 2009, the company reported.

About 4% of shoppers Monday bought items by using a mobile device such as a smart phone or tablet computer, Coremetrics said.

One thing the research firm didn’t report on was precisely how much revenue Cyber Monday generated for online retailers, though Monday was likely the biggest shopping day of the year, surpassing even Black Friday, Squire said.

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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles

Photo illustration: An advertisement for a Cyber Monday sale is displayed on a BlackBerry smart phone on Nov. 29, 2010. An estimated 4% of Cyber Monday shoppers bought good using a smart phone this year, research-firm Coremetrics reported. Credit: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images