Who says Cyber Monday is dead?
Cyber Monday sales increased by 30.3% from the year before, according to the latest data from IBM Smarter Commerce, which tracks online sales for 500 retailers in the U.S.
Total sales increased even though the amount spent per order decreased, a fact that IBM attributes to consumers placing a greater number of orders this year. IBM found that shoppers spent an average of $185.12 per order this year, compared to $198.26 in 2011. Consumers purchased about one more item per order this year than last year, bringing the total to 8.34 items.
Cyber Monday shopping peaked early in the day, with the highest shopping momentum around 11:25 am EST. There was also a surge in shopping after work when consumers had more time to shop.
Mobile shopping exploded on Cyber Monday, with 18% of shoppers accessing retailer's websites from a mobile device, an increase of more than 70% from the year before. The iPad proved to be the most popular mobile device for shopping, driving 7% of the day's online shopping, followed by the iPhone, which accounted for 6.9%. Android devices were third, driving 4.5% of sales.
Overall, IBM found that the majority of consumers (58.1%) shopped from smartphones on Cyber Monday, while 41.9% shopped from tablets.
Consumers have been busy shopping online this holiday weekend. A separate study from comScore found that Black Friday online sales topped $1 billion this year for the first time ever.