Coremetrics: U.S. Thanksgiving online retail sales increased 39% year-on-year in 2011

 According to the latest survey report released by Coremetrics, a research institute under IBM, users spent 20% more time online on this year's "Black Friday" than in the same period last year, while online retail sales on Thanksgiving Day increased by 39%.

Coremetrics has studied the sales data of more than 500 online retailers. Coremetrics and PayPal, a payment website owned by eBay, both said that the amount of shopping by mobile users is showing a significant increase this year. PayPal said that its global mobile payment transaction volume increased fivefold year-on-year on Thanksgiving Day this year. Coremetrics data shows that on Black Friday, 17% of all visitors to retailers' websites were through mobile devices, while this proportion was only 5% a year ago.

There have been reports of inconveniences to users due to a surge in traffic to the retailer's website. According to posts on GottaDeal.com and other sites, some users visiting Walmart's website said they had problems making online payments.

Kathleen Waugh, a spokeswoman for U.S. toy retailer Toys R Us Inc, said on Friday that its website was "slow" when the company launched some group buying activities at 9 p.m. ET on Thursday. She said the company's online sales on Thanksgiving this year were significantly higher than last year.

John Squire, director of IBM's e-commerce marketing department, said that online retail sales usually account for about one-tenth of total retail sales in November, which is also one of the biggest shopping peaks of the year. This proportion is expected to increase this year.

Coremetrics predicts that online retail sales will grow by about 15% this year, compared with single-digit growth in physical stores.

Some retailers have also launched corresponding group buying activities for the first business day after Thanksgiving, which is called Cyber ​​Monday. Squire predicts that by early afternoon of that day, online retail sales on Cyber ​​Monday will exceed the total retail sales on Black Friday.

Squire said IBM's partner websites had no major outages on Thursday or Friday. "People are spending money online, so this is a critical time for the ability of websites to function," he said.

 Source: //tech.sina.com.cn/i/2011-11-26/10546388355.shtml