Cyber Monday Was a Major Success; These Stocks Are the Best Bets

Small businesses were highlighted Saturday.

Today’s Cyber Monday, and in case you haven’t been bombarded with a million emails from all the retailers you’ve ever patronized, online is the place to be.

Adobe compiles its Cyber Monday report using data collected from more than 20 billion visits to retail websites, and draws on statistics from 80 percent of all online transactions from the top 100 USA retailers.

So why shouldn’t bosses just give in and allow their workers to participate in the most lucrative online shopping day in history? Analysts say deep discounts were needed to pry consumers out of their homes and away from their computers or mobile devices.

“Instead of fighting the lines, there are even better deals online”, said Madison Agnello, who plans to do 90 percent of her shopping online.

According to Cetureon, “With almost 70 percent of consumers reporting plans to shop on Cyber Monday sales as compared to 66 percent on Black Friday”.

Probst said he’s noticed the uptick in business too. Sales on Thanksgiving were up 11.5 percent to $1.93 billion.

Jay Notartomaso, owner of Musical Energi in Wilkes-Barre, agreed with Probst. He said he expected Cyber Monday to outpace that, with sales about double or triple that of a normal day.

Online sales are really picking up pace of late.

Amazon, which also discounted heavily, said on Friday the number of items sold this Black Friday would surpass a year ago.

The bump was fueled by shoppers turning to online deals.

Data analytics firm RetailNext said it the entire four-day weekend to account for 18-21 percent of overall holiday revenue.

Auckland spending was up 8 per cent compared with November, while retail spending in Wellington fell by 6 per cent compared with the November average.

If you haven’t done your Cyber Monday shopping yet, don’t worry, as the company is having deals through midnight.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Tashalee Rodriguez of Boston uses a smartphone app while shopping at Macy’s in downtown Boston.

The push to start Cyber Monday deals earlier follows what’s been happening with Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, which used to officially kick off the holiday shopping season in stores.

An employee sorts packages inside the FedEx Corp. distribution hub at Los Angeles International Airport on December 15, 2014.