Reston, Va. - U.S. consumer spending on "Cyber Monday" rose 21% over last year to a record $733 million, with Amazon.com (NASD: AMZN) and Walmart.com (NYSE: WMT) leading the pack of online retailers, according to a report from Internet audience metrics firm comScore (NASD: CSOR). Overall, 44% of Internet users on Cyber Monday visited an online retail site or comparison shopping engine, and 6% made an online purchase.

"Cyber Monday once again set a record with $733 million in sales, the first time a single day of online retail spending has broken the $700 million threshold," said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni.

"While that makes it the heaviest online shopping day on record, we expect that a number of individual shopping days during the coming weeks will surpass the Cyber Monday total, with some days potentially surpassing $800 million."

The report found that the number of online buyers on Cyber Monday was up 38% from last year, while the average dollars spend per buyer was down 12% -- which comScore credited both to deeper and broader discounts at retail sites, and the fact that new Cyber Monday buyers tended to spend less than returning buyers.

Related Links:
http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=1921