Akamai Technologies, Inc. released data from its Akamai Net Usage Index for Retail chronicling real-time traffic to online shopping sites during yesterday's “Cyber Monday.” The Akamai Index recorded that in North America, people were visiting retail sites yesterday at a rate that jumped more than 20% compared to the previous Monday, and nearly 50% compared to one month ago. At the highest point yesterday, more than 3.1 million people per minute were visiting online shopping sites across the globe.
The Akamai Net Usage Index for Retail (www.akamai.com/netusageindex), which provides an aggregate view of total visitors per minute to more than 200 global e-commerce sites, showed consistent growth throughout the day across North America on November 28. At 8 a.m. EST, there were approximately 550,000 visitors per minute to the tracked sites; that number quickly grew to more than 1 million visitors per minute at Noon EST, and then peaked at more than 1.8 million visitors per minute at approximately 3:30 p.m. EST.
Data from website visitor traffic delivered by Akamai during the past three months shows that people around the globe visit e-commerce sites most often on Mondays. Traffic on a typical Monday peaks at 4 p.m. EST, with Monday averages over the last three months of 1.3 million visitors per minute. The Akamai Net Usage Index for Retail surpassed that traffic level by 10 a.m. EST on Cyber Monday.
