2005 Online Holiday Shopping Update

Black Monday, which serves as the official start of the online holiday shopping season, registered a 26 percent increase of non-travel online consumer spending reaching $485 million this year. Last year Black Monday tallied sales of $386 million, according to comScore Networks which tracks online and offline purchasing habits of Internet consumers.

“Despite the hype over Black Monday, this day has not traditionally been the highest online spending day of the season,” said Gian Fulgoni, chairman and co-founder, comScore Networks.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Here's what happened over the "Black Friday" Thanksgiving holiday weekend:

• This year, U.S. consumers spent more than $925 million online during the Thanksgiving weekend (Thu-Sun), an increase of 26 percent over the same period in 2004.
• While Thanksgiving Day remains a comparatively light shopping day, online spending reached $144 million, an increase of 12 percent over the $128 million spent online on Thanksgiving Day 2004.
  
• Americans spent $305 million online on “Black Friday,” up 22 percent compared to the $250 million spent online in 2004.

Online shopping is projected to increase 24 percent over last year for the November/December holiday shopping period to nearly $20 billion in 2005, up from about $16 billion in 2004.