Online sales jump 24% early on Cyber Monday: IBM

SAN FRANCISCO: Online sales jumped during the first hours of Cyber Monday suggesting strong growth from earlier in the holiday shopping season continues, according to data from International Business Machines Corp.

Online sales were up 24.1 per cent as of 12:00pm EST on Cyber Monday, compared to the same period a year earlier, said IBM, which tracks transaction data from 500 U.S. retail websites. In 2011, the early Cyber Monday year-over-year growth was 15 per cent, IBM noted.

Strong online sales growth on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday sparked concern that shoppers may just be buying earlier, threatening revenue later in the season.

"So far that is not the case," said Jay Henderson, Strategy Director, IBM Smarter Commerce. "Extending the shopping season has really just fueled additional online spending rather than cannibalizing days later in the season."