NYT: Sales Climb at Retailers on Internet (up 26% on "Cyber Monday")

Sales Climb at Retailers on Internet
By MICHAEL BARBARO
Published: November 30, 2005


Shoppers, intent on skipping crowded stores and 6 a.m. squabbles over the last bargain laptop, spent 26 percent more money online over the Thanksgiving weekend than they did in 2004, according to figures released yesterday.

Consumers spent $925 million on retail Web sites from Thursday to Sunday, nudging online purchases since Nov. 1 up 24 percent over 2004, according to comScore Networks, a market research firm.

And after a long weekend of pointing and clicking, millions kept right on shopping at work Monday, beginning at 9 a.m., retailers said, validating the holiday shopping season's latest buzz phrase, Cyber Monday.

VisaUSA said that online buying by its cardholders on Monday rose 26 percent, to $505 million from the same day last year.

Little was accomplished at the office as the number of workers who shopped online jumped to 15 million from 11.1 million in 2004....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/30/technology/30cyber.html

We buy educational material only. We no longer shop at regular stores for the kids.

What use are grandparents other than spoiling their descendants? ;)

I wonder, though, how this supposed shopping rush compares, in terms of percentage gain, to a point a week before Thanksgiving, and the same point in 2004. 26% isn't a lot when you consider that more people are shopping online in general than last year.

I love online shopping.
Bought from LLBean, Jackson& Perkins ( nursery-flower outfit)
and Amazon. At Amazon I got a factory reconditioned Krups coffee maker for 45.00 ( new it's 120.00 or more)