HispanicBusiness

US shoppers splashed their cash online Monday setting the record for the most money spent at internet retailers in a single day, according to figures released Tuesday.

IBM's survey of 500 online retailers indicated that online sales rose 30 per cent compared to last year. Average orders per customer dropped by 6.6 per cent, meaning that there were more customers with smaller average purchases.

"Cyber Monday was not only the pinnacle of the Thanksgiving shopping weekend, but when the cash register closed, it officially became the biggest online shopping day ever," said Jay Henderson, strategy director of IBM Smarter Commerce.

Another survey by Adobe Systems estimated that online sales on Cyber Monday were close to 2 billion dollars and represented a 17-per-cent increase over last year's levels.

While both estimates indicated a slightly lower growth rate than last year, online retailers took in some 1 billion dollars on Black Friday, which traditionally marks the start of the holiday shopping season in the United States.

The term Cyber Monday was adopted by online retailers in 2005 to label one of the biggest internet shopping days of the year, when millions of Americans return to work after the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and use their office computers to buy Christmas gifts for family and friends.