Etailers struggle to cope with Cyber Monday traffic

by Graham Charlton 28 November 2007 12:47 0 comments Print

Internet shoppers in the US are reported to have spent around $733m (£355m) on 'Cyber Monday' - the biggest day of the online retail year.

Figures from comScore suggest Amazon and Wal-Mart attracted the most custom, while the overall number of people shopping online was up 38%.

However, the traffic also caused issues - some sites were operating up to 400% slower than usual while Yahoo's Merchant Solutions service buckled under the strain.

Overall, the US holiday season, which ran from the November 1 to November 26, is reported to have seen $10.7bn (£5.1bn) spent on the web, a 17% increase on 2006.

Other Cyber Monday stats:

The number of people buying online was up 38% on 2006, though average spend was down by 12%. This may have been due to the amount of discounts offered to entice buyers.
44% of all US web users visited an online retail site, while 6% made a purchase.
Many web users shopped from work, with 60% of purchases being made from work computers.

Graham Charlton is Editor at Econsultancy. Follow him on Twitter or connect via Linkedin or Google+.