Mobile traffic boosting Cyber Monday sales

An employee stows items at the Amazon.com Inc. fulfillment center in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. on, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2013. More than 131 million consumers are expected to shop Cyber Monday events, up from 129 million last year, according to the National Retail Federation. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
An employee stows items at the Amazon.com Inc. fulfillment center in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. on, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2013. More than 131 million consumers are expected to shop Cyber Monday events, up from 129 million last year, according to the National Retail Federation. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

NEW YORK - Millions of Americans were expected to shop with a few clicks of their computers or mobile devices Monday to take advantage of special discounts offered after the Thanksgiving weekend.

Cyber Monday, a term coined by marketers to promote online shopping, was projected to be the busiest day of the year for Internet retail sites. The National Retail Federation, a trade group, predicted more than 131 million people shopped online, up about 2 percent from last year.

Research firm ComScoreInc. expected Cyber Monday sales to reach $2 billion, up from about $1.47 billion last year. Online sales account for about 10 percent of total Christmas spending, which is expected to grow about 3.9 percent to $602.1 billion for the months of November and December.

Early results show online-shopping traffic was up 21.4 percent compared with the same time last year, according to figures by IBM Benchmark released at noon. Mobile traffic, which includes smartphones and tablets, accounted for 31 percent of all online traffic.

“We’re expecting to see strong gains as retailers roll out new promotions and make new products available on their websites,” said Jay Henderson, strategy director for IBM. “Online commerce seems to really be driving this holiday season.”

Cyber Monday comes after retailers failed in their efforts to promote spending. They offered big discounts in early November, and several opened stores on Thanksgiving Day. But The National Retail Federation predicts that spending fell for the first time ever, down 2.9 percent to $57.4 billion, during the four days that ended Sunday.

About 81 percent of retailers planned to offer deals specifically for Cyber Monday, according to the National Retail Federation’s online arm, called Shop.org.

But this year’s online Christmas-sale deals seemed to start at the beginning of November. Total Internet sales reached $20.6 billion in November, ComScore said Sunday. That’s about 3.1 percent more than the period from Nov. 1 to Black Friday last year, the research firm’s data showed. The 2013 numbers include a few more shopping days because Thanksgiving fell on a later date this year.

Amazon.com Inc. was the most-visited online retailer on Black Friday from home and work desktop computers, followed by EBay Inc. and Wal-Mart’s site, ComScore said.

Target said it had twice as many online orders early on Thanksgiving morning as a year ago. Amazon.com attracted shoppers by offering discounts as often as every 10 minutes during the holiday week.

Walmart.com, the shopping website for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., ramped up its game this year, more than doubling the number of products offered online, from roughly 2 million to about 5 million items. It advertised that it will offer lower prices on 200 items every day this week.

Kelly Thompson, senior vice president-merchandising for walmart.com, said this year’s Christmas shopping season is all about TVs, tablets and toys.

Over the extended weekend, more than half the traffic to walmart.com came from mobile devices, Thompson said.

This year will be remembered “as the year Cyber Monday went mobile,” she said.

An industry website, Retailing Today, said Cyber Monday is particularly popular with the nation’s workers. Nearly nine out of every 10 working consumers said they planned to spend at least some time shopping or browsing online for gifts during work hours Monday, according to a new retail trends report by RetailMeNot.

Results of the survey showed a quarter of working Americans had planned to spend four or more hours Monday shopping online for gifts during work hours.

On Monday morning, Abercrombie & Fitch was offering 50 percent off everything online plus free shipping. Target offered deals on televisions and vacuum cleaners.

Amazon started its Internet deals at midnight on Sunday, including half-off some toys.

Brandon Harris, 27, of Memphis said he started shopping at midnight Sunday and by Monday had spent about $300 and completed half of his Christmas shopping, including a Barbie doll for his niece and a TV for his mother.

“I haven’t shopped for a Christmas present in a store in three years,” he said, making purchases from his iPad instead. “It’s a lot more convenient to be at home and shop.”

On Monday morning, Arthur Baynes, 30, was checking out email deals on his smartphone. Baynes, a travel insurance claims adjuster from Richmond, Va., was looking for a new TV and Blu-Ray games for his younger relatives.

“When I’m looking for something, I’ll look it up on my phone and then use the Amazon app on my iPad to buy,” he said. “It’s just easier. I don’t have to sit down where my computer is.” Information for this article was contributed by Mae Anderson of The Associated Press, Matt Townsend of Bloomberg News and Cyd King of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 12/03/2013

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