IBM Coremetrics reports Cyber Monday sales up nearly 20%

New York - Online sales on Cyber Monday surged nearly 20% from last year, according to IBM Coremetrics, which tracks shopper behavior on more than 500 e-commerce sites. Many analysts expected Monday's online shopping will tally more than $1 billion for the first time.

“Cyber Monday came in as the biggest shopping day of the year so far," said John Squire, chief strategy officer of Coremetrics, a unit of IBM Corp.” Retailers have done an exceptional job across the board of appealing to consumers with highly personalized promotions and a slew of free shipping promotions."

Online sales rose 19.4% in 2010 compared with last year, Coremetrics reported. The individual orders were larger than last year, according to Coremetrics, with the average order placed on Cyber Monday coming in at $194.89, up 8.3% from last year's average of $180.03.

Cyber Monday sales outdid online sales on Black Friday by 31.1%, according to Coremetrics.

Shoppers also used mobile devices to make their purchases, with nearly 4% of all Cyber Monday shoppers using smart phones and other devices.