The U.S. online retail sector delivered strong growth on Cyber Monday 2010 compared to the same period last year, according to powerful analytics-based findings by IBM. IBM's findings expand on the company's earlier report that Black Friday 2010 delivered double-digit growth over 2009, and its forecast that in-store sales of consumer electronics and appliances in U.S. retail stores would get an early start this year, with consumers spending a larger-than-usual share in November.

Delivered as part of Coremetrics, an IBM Company's third annual Cyber Monday Benchmark Report, the analysis of the online retail sector reveals the following trends as of 12 a.m. PST:

Cyber Monday 2010 Compared to Black Friday 2010

• Consumer Spending Increases: Online sales were up 31.1 percent, with consumers pushing the average order value (AOV) up from $190.80 to $194.89 for an increase of 2.1 percent.
• Luxury Goods Continue Comeback: Jewelry retailers reported a significant jump of 60.3 percent in sales.
• Social Shopping: The growing trend of consumers using their networks on social sites for information about deals and inventory levels continued on Cyber Monday. While the percentage of visitors arriving from social network sites is fairly small relative to all online visitors -- nearly 1 percent -- it is gaining momentum, with Facebook dominating the space.
• Mobile Shopping: Consumers continue to use mobile as a shopping tool. On Cyber Monday, 3.9 percent of people visited a retailer's site using a mobile device.

Cyber Monday 2010 Compared to Cyber Monday 2009 (year/year):

• Consumer Spending Increases: Online sales were up 19.4 percent, with consumers pushing the average order value (AOV) up from $180.03 to $194.89 for an increase of 8.3 percent.
• Luxury Goods Report Big Gains: Affluent shoppers opened their wallets wide, driving sales of luxury goods up 24.3 percent over 2009.
• Shopping Peaks at 9:00 am PST/Noon EST: Consumers flocked online, with shopping momentum hitting its peak at 9:00 am PST/noon EST. But consumer shopping maintained stronger momentum throughout the day than on Cyber Monday 2009.

"Cyber Monday came in as the biggest shopping day of the year so far," said John Squire, chief strategy officer, IBM Coremetrics. "Consumers this year appear much more willing to open their wallets and are turning to online stores for the convenience of shopping wherever and whenever they like, but also as their primary source of information about products and inventory levels. Retailers have done an exceptional job across the board of appealing to consumers with highly personalized promotions and a slew of free shipping promotions."

According to an analytics-based forecast from IBM's Global Business Services division, in-store sales in the consumer electronics and appliances sector are expected to increase 3.5 percent this year compared to last, with consumers spending a larger-than-usual share in November. U.S. consumers have been increasing their savings relative to disposable income, from 2 percent in 2007 to nearly 6 percent today, leading to strong pent-up demand this holiday season for consumer electronics and appliances, both of which are typically seen as necessities in the present-day economy.

Source
These findings are based on data from Coremetrics Benchmark, the only analytics-based, peer-level benchmarking solution that measures online marketing results, including real-time sales data. Benchmark leverages Coremetrics' cloud-based web analytics platform to rapidly collect and analyze intelligence on how consumers are responding to the products and services being offered to them, enabling clients to make fact-based, accurate decisions on marketing expenditures. As a result, marketing teams can gain deeper insight about their consumers and present personalized recommendations, promotions and other sales incentives across the wide variety of channels -- including social networks and mobile devices -- where consumers interact with their brands.

Benchmark gathers data directly from the web sites of more than 500 leading U.S. retailers. All data is aggregated and anonymized. Bloomingdale's, L'Occitane en Provence, Macy's, PETCO and Ross-Simons are just a few of the participating companies.