Americans turn to mobile devices for Cyber Monday

Associated Press

NEW YORK

Power up and shop.

Millions of Americans logged on to e-commerce sites Monday to take advantage of deals ranging from free shipping to hundreds of dollars off electronics and half-price clothing on what was expected to be the busiest Internet shopping day of the year. And many of those purchases were made using mobile devices.

The spending surge associated with Cyber Monday came after a disappointing Thanksgiving holiday weekend in stores. It also showed that shoppers are increasingly comfortable buying on tablets and smartphones.

Joel Anderson, president and CEO of Walmart.com, said 2013 would be the “tipping point” for mobile shopping.

Early results indicated online shopping was up 17.5 percent compared with the same time last year, according to figures by IBM Benchmark. Mobile devices accounted for more than 29 percent of all online traffic.