Be honest, how many of you would have predicted that consumers would go on a spending binge over the Thanksgiving holiday? On Monday, we reported that retail sales were up 3 percent on Black Friday compared to a year ago. Now comes word from ComScore, which tracks online purchases, that consumers spent a whopping 15 percent more on Internet purchases on ‘Cyber Monday,’ than they did on the same day in 2007. 

In fact, ComScore reports that online sales topped $846 million on Dec. 1, the second heaviest day on record. The four-day period from Black Friday through Cyber Monday saw e-commerce spending jump 13 percent as both weekend days and Monday all achieved double-digit gains. While the figures are surely comforting to merchants, not all the news is positive.

Overall online sales are down 2 percent for the one-month period between Nov. 1 and Dec. 1.

“Mark Twain might have said: ‘Rumors of the death of online holiday shopping have been greatly exaggerated’,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. “Consumers are clearly responding positively to retailers’ aggressive online discounts. With Cyber Monday promotions beginning in earnest over the Thanksgiving weekend, consumers have finally begun to open their wallets.”

There’s no doubt that aggressive discounting is a key reason behind the rosy Thanksgiving holiday windfall. ComScore’s most recent holiday survey reveals that half of consumers polled indicated that the level of promotions and discounts is higher this year than last; only 12 percent said that there appeared to be fewer bargains

In addition, 39 percent said there seemed to be fewer people out shopping in stores this year compared to 2007, while just 7 percent thought there were more.