Cyber Monday Sales Could Reach $1.5 Billion

Holiday shoppers go from pounding the asphalt to pounding the key boards. Friday was the day to hit the stores for good deals. Now on Monday retailers are giving the consumer every reason they can to go to their websites.

On the heels of data showing a record number of shoppers hit the stores over the holiday weekend, one digital analysis group says spending on the most important shopping day of the year for online retailers, known as Cyber Monday, could surpass $1.5 billion.

According to data released Sunday, Cyber Monday spending is expected to exceed the $1.25 billion reached in 2011 for a gain of 20%. Spending on Cyber Monday, a marketing term coined back in 2005, has more than doubled in the past five years.

Online sales were happening in a big way even before Monday. Online sales for Black Friday surpassed $1 billion for the first time and on Thanksgiving Day online sales grew 32% from a year earlier, to $633 million.

The average holiday shopper spent $423 over the entire weekend, up from $398. Total spending over the four-day weekend totaled $59.1 billion, up nearly 13% from 2011. Since 70% of the economy is consumer spending, this could be just the shot in the arm the country needs.