Cyber Monday sales still on top, but losing some luster

NEW YORK -- Shoppers traded bricks for clicks Monday, flocking online to snap up "Cyber Monday" deals on everything from cashmere sweaters to Star Wars toys.

Now that shoppers are online all the time anyway, the 10-year-old shopping holiday has lost some of its luster as online sales on Thanksgiving and Black Friday pick up.

But enough shoppers have been trained to look for "Cyber Monday"-specific sales to ensure the holiday still will mean big bucks for retailers.

It's too early for sales figures, but Monday still is expected to be the biggest online shopping day ever, likely racking up more than $3 billion in sales, according to research firm comScore.

As of 7 p.m. Monday, Adobe estimated Cyber Monday sales would rise 12 percent to $2.98 billion by the end of the day. A more complete picture of Cyber Monday sales will be available when comScore releases figures Wednesday.

"A lot of people wait to see if deals are better on Cyber Monday," said Forrester Research analyst Sucharita Mulpuru.

New Yorker Anna Osgoodby was one of the many online shoppers who spread her purchases throughout the holiday shopping weekend. On Black Friday, she took advantage of a 35 percent sale at online accessories retailer ashandwillow.com, buying earrings, a necklace and bracelet. Then she bought earrings and clutches on Monday during its 40 percent off sale.

"That extra 5 percent convinced me to buy a few more," she said.

Some hot sellers were in scarce supply by early afternoon Monday. At Target, a Swagway hoverboard was sold out by early afternoon.

The electronic transportation gadget had been $100 off at $399.

Drones and some Star Wars toys were hard to find as well.

"There are certain hot products, hoverboards seem to be a phenomenon, they're selling out everywhere," said Scot Wingo, chairman of ChannelAdvisor, which provides e-commerce services to retailers.

Adobe found 13 of 100 product views returned an out-of-stock message as of 7 p.m., twice the normal rate.

And there were a few brief outages at sites such as Neiman Marcus and Target, and online payments company PayPal reported a brief interruption in service.

Retailers have been touting online deals since the beginning of November. And they no longer wait for Monday to roll out Cyber Monday deals, either.

Amazon started "Lightning Deals" Saturday, and Wal-Mart began all its cyber offers at 8 p.m. Sunday.

"It's no longer about one day, but a season of digital deals," said Matthew Shay, president of retail trade group The National Retail Federation.

That seems to have taken a toll on brick-and-mortar shopping.

Frenzied crowds seemed to be a thing of the past on Black Friday -- the busy shopping day after Thanksgiving -- and sales fell to $10.4 billion this year, down from $11.6 billion in 2014, according to preliminary figures from research firm ShopperTrak.

"Consumers are recognizing the Internet is the place to go for a deal any time, any day," said Gene Alvarez, managing vice president of research firm Gartner.

Research firm comScore expects online sales to rise 14 percent to $70.06 billion during the November and December shopping period, slowing slightly from last year's 15 percent rise.

Online sales make up 10 percent of overall retail sales, but that increases to 15 percent during the holidays as online shoppers snap up Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, according to research firm Forrester.