At $1.25B, Cyber Monday was biggest ecommerce shopping day in history

This year’s Cyber Monday was the biggest day in online spending ever, with $1.25 billion spent at online retailers, up 22 percent from a year ago.

Market researcher comScore reported that the first 28 days of November generated $15 billion in online sales, up 15 percent from $13 billion in the corresponding days a year ago. This year’s Cyber Monday — as the first Monday after Thanksgiving is called — was the second day ever to pass the billion-dollar threshold, comScore said. Cyber Monday is typically the most popular online sales day because gift givers are confident their packages will arrive before Christmas day.

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On Thanksgiving, sales were $479, up 18 percent from a year ago. Black Friday sales were $816 million, up 26 percent from a year ago. On the Thanksgiving weekend, sales were $1.03 billion, up 16 percent.

“Cyber Monday was yet another historic day for e-commerce, with online spending reaching a record $1.25 billion,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. “While last year saw Cyber Monday rank as the heaviest online spending day of the year for the first time ever, it will be interesting to watch the next couple of weeks to see if any future individual days in 2011 manage to leapfrog this year’s highest day-to-date.”

Average spending per buyer is up 9 percent and the number of buyers were up 11 percent. About 10 million people bought online on Cyber Monday. The average online buyer conducted 1.9 online transactions for a total of $125 in spending. Half the dollars spent online at U.S. web sites originated from work computers, so that means people were shopping while they were supposed to be working.