Cyber Monday
This article was originally published in The Rose Sheet
Executive Summary
Online comparison shopping service PriceGrabber.com, a division of market information provider Experian, reports a 56% increase in traffic - more than 1 million referrals to merchants overall - on Nov. 26, or "Cyber Monday," compared with last year. PriceGrabber President Ron LaPierre noted in a release that the company "definitely [saw] consumers spending some spare time at work comparing the prices they saw in the malls over the holiday weekend with available deals online." Online sales for the day jumped 15% to a record $700 mil.; electronics brought in the most dollars, followed by computers, cameras, video games, apparel and toys, respectively. Total holiday Web sales are expected to reach $29.5 bil. in 2007, up 20% from 2006. Analysts had forecasted slower sales growth this holiday season versus last year (1"The Rose Sheet" Nov. 19, 2007, In Brief). According to a PriceGrabber survey of 1,959 shoppers, 88% expect to do at least 50% of their holiday shopping online; 61% expect to shop and buy more online this year than last year, the firm says...