The results are in and the outcome exceeded the forecasts for this year’s holiday
retail events of Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and for Cyber Monday,
the Monday after the Thanksgiving weekend for online sales.

Forrester Research had forecasted a 16 percent increase in sales and comScore had
predicted a 13 percent increase over 2009, and apparently the consumer delivered. 
According to a report by Coremetrics, a unit of IBM, overall consumer spending
specifically online sales was up by 15.9 percent validating the numbers by Forrester
and comScore.

Black Friday
Although Black Friday is known for the flurry of activity occurring at retail stores,
online shopping has been increasing. Shoppers flocked to the Internet on Black Friday,
giving a healthy kick to the traditional start of the holiday shopping season,
according to new figures from comScore. Online shoppers spent $648 million for the day,
a 9% increase from Black Friday 2009 and Thanksgiving Day, traditionally a lighter day
for online holiday spending saw a 28% increase to $407 million.

Cyber Monday
Cyber Monday marked the heaviest online spending day in its history, according to new
figures from comScore. E-commerce sales reached $1.028 billion for the day, up 16%
from a year ago.

In a company press release, Gian Fulgoni, chairman of comScore identified that Cyber
Monday 2010 was a historic day. “The online holiday shopping season has clearly gotten
off to a very strong start, which is welcome news.” “At the same time, it's important
to note that some of the early strength in consumer spending is almost certainly the
result of retailers' heavier-than-normal promotional and discounting activity at this
early point in the season.”

"Cyber Monday was a historic day for e-commerce,"
Gian Fulgoni, the chairman of comScore.

According to Coremetrics, the following highlights the holiday retail weekend:

• Consumers pushed the average order value (AOV) up from $170.19 to $190.80 for
        an increase of 12.1 percent

•     Luxury goods: Jewelry retailers reported a 17.6 percent increase in sales

•    “Surgical” shopping: Consumers know what they want and where to get it. People
     are viewing 18.0 percent fewer products on sites than they did last year,
     suggesting that they are shopping with a specific item in mind and quickly moving
     on

•    Social shopping: Consumers appeared increasingly savvy about their favorite brands'
     social presence, and turned to their networks on social sites for information about
     deals and inventory levels. While the percentage of visitors arriving from social
     network sites is fairly small relative to all online visitors -- nearly 1 percent
     -- it is gaining momentum, with Facebook dominating the space

•    Mobile shopping: Consumers are embracing mobile as a shopping tool. On Black Friday,
     5.6 percent of people logged onto a retailer's site using a mobile device, a jump of
     26.7 percent compared to the prior Friday.

For California, it will take the State Controller’s Office a few weeks to see the influx
from the tax receipts from Black Friday and Cyber Monday.  And if California reflects the
national trend for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, it should a welcomed response for the
‘Golden State’.

For further information, see www.CaliforniaBusinessMinute.com  11-16 &11-29 Minutes



Tim Johnson
tjohnson@californiabusinessminute.com