Heavy promotions and discounts lead to record online sales

Cyber Monday was a big win for e-commerce websites hocking their holiday wares.

With more than $1 billion in online spending, Cyber Monday 2010 shattered previous records with a 16 percent jump in spending compared to last year when shoppers only forked out a mere $887 million for goods online, according to figures from ComScore.

“Cyber Monday was a historic day for e-commerce as we saw daily spending surpass $1 billion for the first time,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. “The online holiday shopping season has clearly gotten off to a strong start, which is welcome news.”

Fulgoni goes on to say a strong show in consumer spending so far this holiday season is a result of retailer’s “heavier-than-normal” promotional and discounting activities.

“While we anticipate that there will be more billion-dollar spending days ahead as we get deeper in the season, only time will tell if overall consumer online spending remains at the elevated levels we’ve seen thus far,” Fulgoni said.

So far this holiday season, $13.55 billion has been spent online, which is a 13 percent increase compared to last year.