IBM Reports 19.7% Increase in Online Thanksgiving Days Sales, 18.9% for Black Friday

IBM

reported a 19.7 percent increase in Thanksgiving Day online sales as holiday shoppers once again went online for the best deals.  This momentum set the stage for a record Black Friday with online sales growing 18.9 percent over the same period last year.  This data is the result of cloud-based analytics from IBM.  The biggest surge came from mobile sales which reached 25.8 percent of total online sales for Thanksgiving, and 21.8 percent for Black Friday, as consumers went from the dinner table to their tablets to lock in the best offers.  In addition, IBM reported that New York City consumers led the way in Black Friday online sales followed by Atlanta and Los Angeles.  Delivered by the IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark, this year's holiday report tracked millions of transactions and terabytes of data from approximately 800 U.S. retail websites.  By leveraging cloud-based analytics, IBM is uniquely positioned to give retailers and marketers unmatched insight into real-time consumer shopping trends. The company released the following trends as of 12:00 a.m. PST:    Online Sales Set