Cyber Monday Saves Black Friday

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Cyber Monday pumped up the volume on an otherwise middling kickoff to the holiday shopping season.

Online sales jumped 14% on Monday compared to the same time last year, according to Coremetrics, a Web analytics firm. Consumers also purchased 30% more items than they did in 2008.

With the Internet comprising about 10% of total holiday sales, these online sales are slowly but steadily gaining in importance.

In comparison, Black Friday saw 195 million shoppers visit stores, but on average each shopper spent $341.31, down about 8% from $372.57 last year, according to the National Retail Federation.

Amazon (AMZN)and eBay(EBAY) were in the spotlight yesterday, as the two major retailers without brick-and-mortar locations.

Overstock.com(OSTK) said its Monday sales were about 10% above their record-breaking Friday levels, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Clothing and jewelry e-retailers were the most popular destinations, which bodes well for companies like Blue Nile(NILE). Apparel companies saw the dollar amount consumers spent rise 26.4%, while jewelers jumped 14.3%, according to Coremetrics.