Record $1 Billion Spent by Shoppers Online on Black Friday
Increase in spending represents 26 percent jump over last year.
For the first time since the internet's inception, Black Friday saw online sales for the coveted shopping day surpass $1 billion. Eager bargain hunters spent an accumulative of $1.042 billion online the day after Thanksgiving, representing a 26 percent increase in spending online compared to last year's Black Friday.
According to figures released by market analyst ComScore, online shopping on Thanksgiving Day also increased by generating $633 million in receipts, which is a 32 percent increase over Thanksgiving, 2011.
"Despite the frenzy of media coverage surrounding the importance of Black Friday in the brick-and-mortar world, we continue to see this shopping day become more and more prominent in the e-commerce channel -- particularly among those who prefer to avoid crowds at the stores," ComScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni said. "Coupled with early reports indicating that Black Friday sales in retail stores were down 1.8 percent, we can now confidently call it a multi-channel marketing phenomenon."
Apparel and accessories accounted for more than a quarter of all dollars spent online last Friday, consequently overtaking last year's number one seller, computer hardware. Tablets and smartphone sales also experienced an increase, as did sales of digital content and subscriptions, which boasts the largest sales growth with a 29 percent increase over last year.
57.3 million web users visited online retail sites on Friday, an 18 percent increase over the figure from 2011. Apart from auction sites including eBay, the most visited site was Amazon, with the world's largest online retailer followed by brick-and-mortar giants Walmart and Best Buy, while Target and Apple completed the top five.
Elsewhere, ComScore predicts record spending during Cyber Monday, which is the day when U.S. consumers are proven to continue their shopping in the office. The company's forecast surpasses the $1.25 billion spent online during 2011's Cyber Monday.
"With Thanksgiving now behind us and most consumers returning to work tomorrow, we can look forward with anticipation to Cyber Monday, which according to norms we've observed over the past three years should be the heaviest online shopping day of the season with sales approaching $1.5 billion or even higher," Fulgoni added.
Online shopping for the first 23 days of November, meanwhile, resulted in $13.7 billion in sales, representing a 16 percent increase over the same period last year.

Who really has the time to queue up for hours on end or get into fists-to-cuffs for that last toaster on sale!
Maybe to watch some woman lose her weave or the red-neck throwing up in the isle....
Who really has the time to queue up for hours on end or get into fists-to-cuffs for that last toaster on sale!
Maybe to watch some woman lose her weave or the red-neck throwing up in the isle....
I always shop on-line cause the fact its always alot cheaper than going to local stores that rip you off to make up their losses.
black friday is great i know where all the crazy people are and how to avoid them, and thanks to online shopping i can still get good deals from the comfort of my couch
*edit z77 mobo not p77... p77 what would be the point of the 3570k*
http://semiaccurate.com/2012/11/26/intel-kills-off-the-desktop-pcs-go-with-it/
Tom's need's an "anonymous" contact form for submissions.
Only thing that tempts me at the moment is the free Droid RAZR (in "cranberry") from Verizon on a 2 year contract (i've been looking for a phone, the deal isn't great but it's good) and a Rosewill office chair for 40 bucks after 20 dollar rebate and 20 dollar savings with code.
Everything else has been the typical "raise the price around the holidays, then bring it back to what it was 6 months ago and call it a sale" crap.
Damn if that is true . . .
might be time to buy AMD stock
It was Thursday night.... I then checked the next morning at 5:AM est
and the SSD was already SOLD OUT!
Imagine if I had waited a bit for a better deal....
still waiting for UPS..... hope that everything works
***replacing his "aging" 128 SSD system drive for this one***
lol it was all bought on credit.
Bigger is not always better. What are the specs? I paid $800 for a 46" Toshiba a few months ago and I still feel like it was a good deal, even though I have seen 55" tv's for less everywhere.
This is the same reason I don't care about Thunderbolt. External graphics cards that cost more because Intel will be licensing the technology to other companies. I refuse to pay the Intel tax.