Record sales expected on Cyber Monday

A strong showing on Black Friday has Web retailers expecting record sales on Cyber Monday, which has become the top online shopping day of the year.

According to comScore, Black Friday (Nov. 25) saw $816 million in online sales, a 26 percent increase over a year ago. Thanksgiving day also saw an increase of 18 percent to $479 million.

“Despite some analysts’ predictions that the flurry of brick-and-mortar retailers opening their doors early for Black Friday would pull dollars from online retail, we still saw a banner day for e-commerce with more than $800 million in spending,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni.

"We now turn our attention to Cyber Monday, a day that Shop.org says will see eight-in-ten retailers running special online promotions. Last year, Cyber Monday was the heaviest day of online spending ever, with sales exceeding $1 Billion, and we fully expect to see another record set this year.”

Last year the start of the holiday shopping season also marked one of the largest crackdowns on online piracy and counterfeiting to date by the Obama administration. Federal officials will announce the latest actions taken against online piracy on Monday.

Last year Cyber Monday sales surpassed $1 billion and analysts have predicted a 20 percent increase this year. Amazon.com was the top online retailer on Black Friday, followed by Walmart, Best Buy, Target and Apple.