Online Shopping Topped $1 Billion for First Time on Black Friday

[[Coi] Mr.CLuBBeR]

Hopefully you all stayed safe out there and survived the madness that is known as Black Friday. Or maybe you skipped all the hoopla of angry crowds and avoided all the pushing and shoving by staying at home and doing your shopping online. Certainly many of you did, According to comScore's data, online shopping on Black Friday surged to $1.042 billion, making it the heaviest online shopping day to date in 2012, and representing a 26 percent bump compared to last year.
Total online sales for the first 23 days of the November-December 2012 holiday season reached $13.7 billion, up 16 percent versus the same time period one year ago. Online spending on Thanksgiving Day totaled $633 million, up nearly a third from $479 million in 2011, comScore says.
"Despite the frenzy of media coverage surrounding the importance of Black Friday in the brick-and-mortar world, we continue to see this shopping day become more and more prominent in the e-commerce channel – particularly among those who prefer to avoid crowds at the stores," said comScore chairman, Gian Fulgoni. "With Black Friday online sales up 26 percent and surpassing $1 billion for the first time, coupled with early reports indicating that Black Friday sales in retail stores were down 1.8 percent, we can now confidently call it amulti-channelmarketing phenomenon."
The holiday shopping season is far from over. Today is Cyber Monday, the busiest online shopping day of the year, and comScore figures sales for the day will top $1.5 billion.
To get the most bang for your buck (and for groovy gift ideas), be sure to check out our continually updated "Cyber Monday 2012 Ads Round Up" and "Geek Holiday Gift Guide 2012."
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