Cyber Monday Sales Top Off Bay Area Holiday Shopping Weekend
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS/AP) -- For Bay Area shoppers, Black Friday is a distant memory. Small Business Saturday is long gone. Now, it's Cyber Monday's turn.
Cyber Monday, coined in 2005 by a shopping trade group that
noticed a spike in online sales on the Monday after Thanksgiving
when people returned to their work computers, is the next in a line
of days that stores are counting on to jump start the holiday
shopping season.
This year's Cyber Monday is expected to be the biggest online
shopping day of the year for the third year in a row: According to
research firm comScore, Americans are expected to spend $1.5
billion, up from $1.25 billion last year on Cyber Monday, as
retailers ramp up deals to get shoppers to click on their websites.
A survey released by the National Retail Federation on Sunday is
showing that U.S. shoppers hit stores and websites at record
numbers over the Thanksgiving weekend. They were attracted by
stores' efforts to make shopping easier for everyone, including
opening on Thanksgiving Day and expanding shipping and layaway
options.
A record 247 million shoppers visited stores and websites over
the four-day weekend starting Thanksgiving, according to the
survey. That's up 9.2 percent from a year ago. Americans spent more
too: The average holiday shopper spent $423 over the entire
weekend, up from $398.
Total spending over the four-day weekend totaled $59.1 billion,
up $52.4 billion in 2011.
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