Black Friday Online Spending Hits $816 Million, Up 26%

According to comScore, online spending hit $12.7 billion, for the first 25 days of the November-December 2011 holiday season; a 15 percent increase over last year. In fact, many shoppers did not even let their turkey digest before going online. Thanksgiving Day (November 24) saw a strong 18 percent increase in sales to $479 million.

"Despite some analysts' predictions that the flurry of brick-and-mortar retailers opening their doors early for Black Friday would pull dollars from online retail, we still saw a banner day for e-commerce with more than $800 million in spending," said comScore chairman, Gian Fulgoni.

"With brick-and-mortar retail also reporting strong gains on Black Friday, it's clear that the heavy promotional activity had a positive impact on both channels. We now turn our attention to Cyber Monday, a day that Shop.org says will see eight-in-10 retailers running special online promotions. Last year, Cyber Monday was the heaviest day of online spending ever, with sales exceeding $1 billion, and we fully expect to see another record set this year."

According to comScore, 50 million Americans visited online retail sites on Black Friday, an increase of 35 percent versus year ago. Each of the top five retail sites achieved double-digit gains in visitors over 2010, led by Amazon. Walmart ranked second, followed by Best Buy, Target and Apple.

"Each of the top online retailers generated significantly greater Black Friday activity compared to last year," added Fulgoni. "Amazon.com once again led the pack, with 50 percent more visitors than any other retailer, while also showing the highest growth rate versus last year. However, it is telling that the top multi-channel retailers also showed strong growth in visitors, demonstrating the importance of the online channel to the retail industry as a whole."