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Record Cyber Monday spending tops US$3b

Old Navy – The store in the Bridgewater Promenade will open at 4 p.m. Thanksgiving Day, and remain open through Black Friday.

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Fulgoni added, “It comes as no surprise that Amazon led all online retail properties in Cyber Monday traffic, but several multi-channel retailers such Walmart and Target also had very strong showings”.

Cyber Monday did not go without a hitch, however.

IBM has predicted Cyber Monday online sales will grow by more than 18 percent compared to 2014. The scenes of mayhem which punctuated the events past year were largely absent in 2015 and queues were smaller.

The predictions for a successful Cyber Monday came true.

The run-up to the festive season is always a key time for retailers, although by focusing sales into this small window at the end of November, it may be that December’s figures are less promising. Perhaps they know those Black Friday deals aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. The analysis yielded surprising insights into the latest mobile holiday shopping trends as consumers increasingly made purchases via their smartphones, signaling a fundamental shift in consumers’ buying habits.

Other online retailers had problems due to big demands, said BBC.

According to data pulled from Adobe’s ADBE Digital Index data tool, total online sales for Cyber Monday increased 16% from previous year, a number that beat the software company’s initial prediction of an increase of 12%.

The large amount of traffic on Black Friday meant some websites struggled to cope and many of Britain’s biggest retailers such as Argos and John Lewis left customers frustrated with slow page load times and multiple website crashes.

The report concludes with a note that Cyber Monday beat Black Friday in terms of social media sentiment with 56 percent of people posting positive things versus 40 percent for Black Friday, although given the annual orgy, riots and even injuries resulting from the Friday those numbers are not exactly surprising.

First Data compiled the year-over-year review using sales figures for more than 820,000 of its merchant locations across all US states. IBM Watson pegs the increase at 17.8 percent from Cyber Monday 2014 sales.

Online sales were in stark contrast to the performance of brick-and-mortar retailers over the four-day weekend.

The name “Cyber Monday” was coined in 2005 by the National Retail Federation’s online arm, called Shop.org, to encourage people to shop online.

Cowen & Co. analysts weighed in yesterday, saying online retailers weren’t just offering earlier discounts, but also simplifying their discounts, with department and clothing stores offering deep discounts.

“Secondly, it is hamstrung by its own name – primarily making it an online only shopping day”.

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Amazon said last Friday was their busiest in the United Kingdom with more than 7.4m products sold at a rate of about 86 per second.

The Amazon Fulfilment Centre prepares for Black Friday