Black Friday Desktop E-Commerce Spending Rose 15 Percent To $1.2B, Amazon Was The Most Visited Online Retailer

We heard that Black Friday online spending possibly reached record numbers over the weekend, and today comScore has released an actual amount that was spent on one of the busiest shopping days of the year. Black Friday 2013 (November 29) saw $1.198 billion in desktop online sales, making it the season's first billion dollar day and heaviest online spending day to date, up 15 percent from Black Friday 2012. Thanksgiving Day (November 28) rose 21 percent increase over Thanksgiving Day last year to $766 million.

comScore says that for the holiday season-to-date, $20.6 billion has been spent online, marking a 3-percent increase versus the corresponding days last year. But comScore cautions that the 2013 holiday shopping season is shorter, so the numbers may be skewed. Interestingly, comScore is also differentiating desktop spending vs. mobile spending, which should also reach record amounts.

comScore reports that 66.1 million Americans visited online retail sites on Black Friday using a desktop computer, representing an increase of 16 percent versus year ago. Amazon, unsurprisingly, ranked as the most visited online retail site on Black Friday, followed by eBay, Walmart, Best Buy and Target.

Spending on Apparel & Accessories is seeing a surge this holiday season, ranking as the leading product category to date, accounting for 28 percent of online spending. This is followed by Computer Hardware (19 percent), Consumer Electronics (7 percent), Consumer Packaged Goods (5 percent) and Shipping Services (5 percent).

Because comScore is counting desktop, and doesn't seem to be incorporating mobile, it's still going to be interesting to see what mobile engagement and spending looks like by the numbers. IBM said that mobile traffic grew to 39.7 percent of all online traffic, an increase of 34 percent over Black Friday 2012. Mobile sales reached 21.8 percent of total online sales, an increase of nearly 43 percent year-over-year.

On Black Friday, PayPal was reporting a 121 percent increase in global mobile TPV compared to Black Friday 2012 and a 99.24 percent increase in global mobile shoppers compared to Black Friday 2012.

And of course, we'll look to see how spending increases this year tomorrow, which is Cyber Monday. This day usually produces billion-plus sales for retailers. Stay tuned.