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Cyber Monday sales possibly could beat last year

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CHARLOTTE, N.C.-- If you found yourself shopping online Monday while your boss wasn’t looking, you weren’t the only one.

"More people are turning to online to make holiday purchases," said Tom Bartholomy, president of the Better Business Bureau of Southern Piedmont.

In fact, if the numbers from Black Friday are any indication, then Cyber Monday’s numbers could be even better despite the economy.

"We're anticipating the traffic's going to be high and probably even higher than last year, which was a record year for Cyber Monday," said Bartholomy.

"Right now they have the no shipping charges, so that's been very good and actually I just ordered something over the weekend," said shopper Brenda Baalman.

We found that consumers are expected to spend 12 percent more this year on their online purchases than last year.

As for Black Friday, preliminary numbers show sales were up by 3 percent from last year overall and here in the South, according to the research firm, ShopperTrak RCT Corp.

Bartholomy says there are reasons for that.

"You look at what consumers are experiencing right now. The massive layoffs haven't hit yet," he said. "Gas prices have plummeted. And with the discounts that the retailers are making, it's just made for a compelling reason to go out there and shop.”

"I'm just going to see the difference between LCDs and plasma screen TVs, prices and what is the best buy," said Ray Graham, a shopper.

"I actually went online first. They didn't have them.  So, I'm out driving around trying to find them," said Laurie Foster, a shopper.

And this holiday season, you’ll have fewer days to get all of that shopping done.

"The amount of time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is five days shorter than last so that doesn't give people as many shopping days,” said Bartholomy.