During this holiday season stores are expecting the worst. Online stores may surprise us all by keeping sales up during these slow times. "Cyber Monday" actually had strong sales which was an increase from the weekend sales. Online sales were steady on Thanksgiving and only continued to increase throughout the weekend. Despite the economy slump, online sales were up 2% from last year's Thanksgiving and Black Friday sales. The Chase index showed an increase of internet sales over the weekend from $66.7 million on Thanksgiving day to $124.3 million on Sunday, versus $91.4 million on Sunday last year. Despite never before seen sales through Black Friday weekend, retail shares saw their biggest one-day percentage decline ever.Cybermonday.com had around 2 million online shoppers by 5 p.m., which was up by .5 million people compared to last year. Cybermonday.com features different discounts offered from over 620 retailers. Free shipping is most popular and visitors have also shown interest in GPS devices and games such as the Nintendo Wii which are usually very hard to find during the holiday season for a reasonable price.
Melissa Payner, chief executive officer of Bluefly, said it was apparent by mid-afternoon Monday that the off-price website was tracking an increase over last Cyber Monday. This was a comment from a lot of off-price websites. People are still wanting to buy their usual holiday gifts but are trying to find bargains anywhere they can. The trend on Monday appeared to keep the increase of sales figures that began building last week. Nielsen Online reported that eBay was the top online retail destination on Black Friday, with a unique audience of nearly 9.9 million, a 7 percent increase from 2007.
Maybe this Holiday Season will be a Merry one after all.
-Katie Davidson
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