Retail Solutions online editor in chief Matt Pillar said in a blog post this week that the best shopping day of 2009 is still yet to come, despite Cyber Monday sales being up five percent year over year.
Pillar explains:
Cyber Monday is a term that was coined by the NRF's Ellen Davis in 2005 to mark the online shopping spike measured each Monday after Black Friday. But while Cyber Monday has in recent years garnered a reputation as the Black Friday of online retailing, this year's Cyber Monday sales only matched the record for highest daily online sales ($887 million). Interestingly, that record, set Dec. 9, 2008, didn't occur on Cyber Monday at all but on Tuesday of the following week.
That near-billion dollar mark is impressive, but still small in comparison to the $4.7 billion that Americans spend in retail stores on Black Friday. That being said, Pillar predicts the best day of retail sales between now and Christmas just might happen online, and, recession notwithstanding will probably be a record-setter.
