Cyber shopping up 20%; workers clicking away to diamond.com

Shoppers who jumped online Monday to buy holiday gifts spent $733 million, a 21 percent jump from a year ago, according to an Internet research firm.

ComScore, based in Chicago and Reston, Va., reported today that 60 percent of the online shoppers completed their purchases from work.

The Monday after Thanksgiving, termed Cyber Monday, kicks off the online retail holiday season.

Experts believe online spending will top $800 million on certain days prior to Christmas.

Last year’s busiest online shopping day, on Dec. 13, 2006, generated $667 million in sales.

The number of Cyber Monday buyers jumped 38 percent from last year, but the average amount they spent declined 12 percent. The decline likely occurred because of retailers’ discounts and new buyers’ tendency to keep their spending lower than experienced online shoppers.

Jewelers were among the biggest sales winners, with Diamond.com reporting a 65 percent increase in sales versus last year, and Ice.com seeing an 82 percent sales jump.

ComScore expects online spending for November and December to total $29.5 billion, a 20 percent increase from last year.