Holiday shoppers turned Cyber Monday into the biggest spending day ever with online sales growing 30.3 percent over the same period last year, according to cloud-based analytics findings by IBM.
IBM said that shopping peaked at 11:25am EST. As in 2011, consumer shopping also maintained strong momentum after commuting hours on both the east and west coast.
On Cyber Monday more than 18 percent of consumers used a mobile device to visit a retailer's site, an increase of more than 70 percent over 2011. Mobile sales reached close to 13 percent, an increase of more than 96 percent over 2011, IBM found.
The iPad continued to generate more traffic than any other tablet or smartphone, driving more than 7 percent of online shopping. This was followed by iPhone at 6.9 percent and Android 4.5 percent. The iPad also continued to dominate tablet traffic reaching a holiday high of 90.5 percent. Amazon Kindle leapt into second at 2.6 percent followed by the Samsung Galaxy at 2 percent and the Barnes and Noble Nook at 0.6 percent.
Amazon.com cut the price of the Kindle Fire tablet by $30 to $129 on Monday, and it was the company's most successful Cyber Monday deal ever, the retailer said.
Overall 58.1 percent of consumers used smartphones compared to 41.9 percent who used tablets to surf for bargains on Cyber Monday.
Shoppers also referred from Social Networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube generated 0.41 percent of all online sales on Cyber Monday, a decrease of more than 26 percent from 2011.
Compared to Black Friday, online sales were on Cyber Monday were up more than 36 percent.
But what did consumers buy? According to IBM's data,
department stores continued to offer deals and promotions that drove sales to grow by 43.1 percent over Cyber Monday 2011.
Health and Beauty sales increased 25.1 percent year over year.
Home goods maintained its momentum this year, reporting a 26.8 percent increase in sales from Cyber Monday 2011.
Apparel sales were also strong this holiday with Cyber Monday numbers showing an increase of 25.3 percent over 2011.