Cyber Monday smashes online sales record

Computerworld - Cyber Monday 2012 -- yesterday -- was the biggest online shopping day in history, according to multiple sources.

The Adobe Digital Index, which tracks online spending, said that online sales totaled some $1.98 billion Monday, a 17% increase over Cyber Monday online sales last year.

An IBM analysis of Cyber Monday sales echoed Adobe's findings, also finding that yesterday was the biggest online sales day ever. The IBM analysis showed that 2012 Cyber Monday sales were 30.3% more than last year, though its report lacked dollar figures.

The IBM analysis did note that sales were quite strong during the workday -- online buying peaked at 11:25 a.m. ET.

According to IBM's report, about 13% of total Cyber Monday online sales were done via mobile devices, 96% more than last year.

A study by Compuware APM found that Apple's site held up best among retailers during the Cyber Monday online shopping onslaught. Rounding out the top five performing sites yesterday were Costco, JCPenney, Dell and Overstock.com.

The Cyber Monday online sales total broke a record that had been set just three days earlier. Online tracker comScore had granted Black Friday 2012 the online sales record -- $1.042 billion.

Sharon Gaudin covers the Internet and Web 2.0, emerging technologies, and desktop and laptop chips for Computerworld. Follow Sharon on Twitter at @sgaudin, or subscribe to Sharon's RSS feed . Her e-mail address is sgaudin@computerworld.com.

Read more about E-business in Computerworld's E-business Topic Center.