Cyber Monday traffic tops 2008

Cambridge company Akamai technologies tracked online traffic on Cyber Monday, the name given to the Monday after Thanksgiving, since it's the day which is viewed by many retailers as the start of the online holiday shopping season, reports Boston Globe.

At approximately 11:30am ET, global retail traffic had already surpassed the 2008 Cyber Monday peak of 6 713 653 global visitors per minute.

A peak of more than 7.9 million global visitors per minute to retail sites was registered at 3pm.

Internet retail services have proved resilient to the global recession and the sector is set for a strong Christmas, one expert has claimed, says Computeach.

The suggestion that the e-retail sector has proved to be successful despite the downturn could encourage more people in the IT industry to focus their efforts on developing new ways to expand Internet retail services.

According to the Interactive Media in Retail Group, the e-retail market has managed to survive the economic downturn in relatively good health, while October's postal strikes did not affect business as much as some may have feared.

The market for cellular phones has shown good signs globally this year and normally demand is high during a retail season like Christmas, according to PIA Information Services.

Sony Ericsson Philippines marketing manager, Patrick S Larraga, said globally the market showed good signs despite the financial crisis and continued to pick even up to this time. He said figures of the entire manufacturing industry on the production volume would range from 400 000 to 500 000 units monthly.

And per their observation, he said it is the young generation that looks for new units after using one for a period of 12 months. "They change units almost every year and acquire another when there are new ones introduced in the market," he said.