Shall We Call it Cyber Friday?

Ars Technica reports: The numbers from Black Friday are in, and traffic measurement firms have released their initial 2008 holiday shopping studies. Brick-and-mortar stores saw an unfortunate (though unsurprising) drop in online visitors and spending dollars, but online-only venues enjoyed a spike in traffic and spending that beat 2007.

Leading off with the bad news, Hitwise reports that online shopping traffic on Thanksgiving Day was down 11 percent compared to 2007, and Black Friday traffic was down five percent. Amplifying one of its reports last week on a drop in online spending since the holidays began, comScore says that spending totaled $10.41 billion during the first four weeks of November, which is a four percent decline during the same period in 2007.

On the bright side, however, online-only venues, such as Amazon.com and Newegg.com, saw traffic boosts of 11 percent on Thanksgiving Day and 10 percent on Black Friday. Online spending reached $288 million on Thanksgiving Day, a six percent increase from 2007, while online Black Friday spending saw a one percent increase from 2007 to $534 million as well.

When auction sites like eBay are excluded, Amazon, Walmart, and Target were the top three retail websites on Black Friday, according to Nielsen Online. Otherwise, eBay takes the number one spot with 9.8 million visitors. These sites are followed by Best Buy, Circuit City, Dell, Sears, Kohl's, and JC Penny, with Circuit City enjoying the largest traffic spike from the previous Friday (11/21) of 352 percent. Not bad for a company that just closed 155 stores and filed for bankruptcy.

Online numbers may look even better after today's results are tallied, though. While Black Friday is the traditional kickoff of the holiday shopping season (named as such for being the first day that many retailers get into the black and turn a profit), "Cyber Monday," as it is now called, has become an increasingly important barometer for online spending during the holiday season. According to comScore, approximately half of all online purchases originate from work, so the Monday after Thanksgiving when most employees return to the office is being watched even more closely this year.

In light of the decrease in overall holiday spending, but increase in online traffic and spending, comScore is maintaining its flat growth forecast from last week. The firm predicts overall holiday spending to remain unchanged from 2007 at $29.2 billion.

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