PriceGrabber.com's “Cyber Monday” shopping data shows a continued strong growth in comparison shopping and online shopping. First reported on “Black Friday” and continued on “Cyber Monday,” the site saw the busiest day for the year-to-date with a 15% increase in the traffic sent to online merchants compared with Black Friday and 43% week over week growth compared to the previous Monday. PriceGrabber has already experienced 45% growth for November compared to the previous year.

According to Jupiter Research, forecasts predict that 2006 online holiday sales will grow to $32 billion, an increase of 18% over last year's holiday season. Analysts forecast that a record 114 million users will buy online this holiday season. That figure is up 6% over the same period last year.

The “Cyber Monday” phenomenon revealed workers returned to the office from the holiday weekend and took advantage of high-speed internet connections to continue their holiday shopping. A recent survey conducted by PriceGrabber.com indicates that 38% of shoppers will shop online at work to get their holiday shopping done, with males stating they are 20% more likely to shop online at work for the holiday season compared to females. Consumers also stated that they will spend an average amount of $1,195, a 17% increase over last year's average of $1,025.

PriceGrabber.com's statistics show that the peak hour of traffic was approximately at 11 a.m. PST and was consistently busy throughout the typical- day hours from Eastern through Pacific time zones.

While Cyber Monday is the biggest traffic day yet this holiday season based on previous years' performance, PriceGrabber.com expects continued growth in activity on its site through first few weeks of December.

Popular Products on Cyber Monday

The top three most popular products across relevant product categories included:

  Sporting Goods
  -- Callaway Golf Callaway X-Tour Irons, starting at $124.99
  -- Razor Dirt Quad, starting at $297.84
  -- Exercise Bike -- Edge 491r Recumbent Exercise Bike, starting at $299.98

  Apparel
  -- The North Face Women's Denali Jacket style A194, starting at $123.71
  -- Barrie Pace Beaded Dress with Wrap, starting at $159.00
  -- Women's Ugg Australia Classic Tall Boots, starting at $139.95

In addition to the above popular products PriceGrabber saw the following increased merchant referrals week over week among the following “hot” products of the season:


  -- Canon SD600 Digital Camera 151% increase
  -- InterAct Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Play Set 90% increase
  -- Xbox 360 81% increase
  -- Apple iPod Video 5th Generation 30G 80% increase
  -- Panasonic 42" Plasma TV  38% increase