Report: Cyber Monday spending shifts to early a.m. and p.m.

Washington, D.C. A report released Tuesday by Shop.org found that, although lunchtime was expected to be Cyber Monday’s most robust shopping hour, early morning and evening sales turned out to be the strongest.

This year, according to the report, many retailers saw Cyber Monday traffic and sales shift this year from mid-day hours to the early morning and evening hours as more Americans shopped for deals from home.

Shop.org’s CyberMonday.com, which features holiday promotions and special savings from more than 700 retailers, had 15.8 million visits yesterday, an increase of 8% from Cyber Monday 2008. With many Americans waking up to shop for bargains, the largest hour for traffic was the 1.2 million hits from 9:00 a.m. -- 10:00 a.m. EST. As another indication that people were shopping from home, site traffic from 5 p.m. EST to midnight grew by 19% from 2008.

“With more people shopping on Cyber Monday this year and an increasing number of retailers offering promotions, this was the largest -- and most important -- Cyber Monday yet,” said Scott Silverman, executive director of Shop.org. “Since retailers began highlighting Cyber Monday promotions five years ago, Americans’ spending patterns have changed. More families have high-speed Internet access at home and don’t need to rely on their work computers to make holiday purchases, which makes the early morning and evening hours crucial for retail sales.”

A pre-Cyber Monday survey by Shop.org found that 41.5% of those making a purchase on Cyber Monday were planning to shop early in the morning and a sizeable number of Cyber Monday shoppers planned to shop in the early evening (32.9%) or late evening (22.7%). The shift in spending coincides with a decline in people shopping from the office. According to the survey, 91.5% of Cyber Monday shoppers planned to shop from home on Cyber Monday while just 13.5% planned to shop from work.

According to the survey, conducted by BIGresearch, 96.5 million Americans planned to shop on Cyber Monday this year, up from 85 million in 2008. And retailers were standing by to deliver to bargain hunters: nearly nine in 10 (87.1%) retailers offered a special promotion for Cyber Monday, up from 83.7% last year and 72.2% in 2007.

“While many online retailers are breathing a sigh of relief after a successful Cyber Monday, they will quickly shift their focus to finding ways to bring shoppers online for the rest of the holiday season,” said Silverman. “Many Web sites will experience another huge surge in traffic the week of December 14, when shipping offers begin to expire, so companies are taking lessons-learned from Cyber Monday and planning to implement minor changes over the next few weeks.”