Retail Sales Online, In Stores Leap To Record Levels Over Thanksgiving, Cyber Monday

The Monday after Thanksgiving, known as Cyber Monday, was a red letter day for online retailers this year. In a sign of consumers’ growing comfort with shopping on the Internet, online sales leaped 22 percent to $1.25 billion, with the average online order rising 2.6 percent to $193.24. Web traffic jumped 28 percent on Monday. A record 226 million shoppers visited stores and Web sites over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend, up from 212 million last year. And Black Friday sales rose seven percent to $11.4 billion.