Monday was bluer and better than ever. American consumers returned to work from the long Thanksgiving weekend with the urge to shop online in record numbers. By the end of Blue Monday, Americans had spent $391 million in online purchases, an increase of 30 percent over the year before, according to comScore Networks.

Dubbed Blue Monday for the color of the hyperlinks that deliver online shoppers to e-tailers, the first Monday after Thanksgiving has emerged as the counterpart to Black Friday - the day following Thanksgiving when retailers bring their books from the red into the black in the first flurry of holiday shopping.

Experts say the Monday after Thanksgiving is a popular online shopping day because workers trudging back into the office are lured to shop by the prevalence of high-speed Internet access in the workplace. This year’s Blue Monday sales figures beat the expectations of Graham Mudd, senior analyst at comScore, who had expected a surge of 23 to 26 percent growth in year-over-year sales.

Because they set the tone for the remainder of the holiday shopping season, retail industry watchers keep an anxious eye on sales figures in the days after Thanksgiving. And this year, the ka-chings of cash registers have been rivaled by clicks from online shoppers. The number of unique shoppers online jumped 11 percent on Black Friday, compared to the same day last year, according to the Nielsen/NetRatings Holiday eShopping Index.

Shoppers are not just surfing and researching products, they are also spending more than last year, according to comScore. Americans spent $250 million online on Friday - up 41 percent from the $178 million that was spent last year on the same day.

In comparison, brick and mortar Friday sales were still $8 billion, but growth over the Thanksgiving weekend was only 2.9 percent from the same day last year. This is much less than growth in 2003 of 7.5 percent, according to Shoppertrak, a shopper traffic counting technology provider.

Excluding auctions and travel, consumers have spent $6.5 billion online so far this holiday shopping season (November 1 - November 29), an increase of 25 percent compared to $5.3 billion during the corresponding days last year.

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Analysts say high broadband penetration, more Internet users who spend more time online, and increasing trust in e-commerce are a few of the reasons for the recent surge in online sales. Moreover, consumers are increasingly using the Internet to compare prices for their offline purchases, according to Ken Cassar, an analyst with Nielsen/NetRatings.

Mr. Mudd says consumers are making costlier purchases as a result of three to four years of the electronic buying experience. He pointed out that many big retailers are offering consumers the choice to buy online and pick up their purchases in the store.

There’s no doubt that more broadband use is catapulting online sales. In October 2003, about 21 percent of all U.S. households had broadband. This October, Gartner Research puts it at 26 percent. In 2009, 60 percent of U.S. households will be connected to broadband, according to Forrester Research.

Adam Sarner, an analyst with Gartner, says online buying is becoming part and parcel of consumers’ overall buying process. Growth in online sales won’t translate into the extinction of brick and mortar stores, says Mr. Sarner. “The web has a huge influence on offline sales,” he says, pointing out that a consumer who visits a retail store’s web site is much more likely to visit the store in person.

Indeed, Van Baker, another Gartner analyst, says the most recent online sales figures prove that web sites and retail stores work nicely together. Consumers go both ways before buying a product - either they research online and buy the product in the store or look up products in the store before buying them online. “The continuous growth of online shopping is no surprise,” he says. “It’s all about the convenience and flexibility of the consumers.”

Stores stay connected

Web sites such as eBay, Amazon, and Yahoo Shopping saw a swell of online visitors this Black Friday, compared to 2003, says Mr. Cassar. While eBay saw a 10 percent jump, visitors on Amazon and Yahoo Shopping went up 50 percent and 61 percent, respectively, compared to the previous Black Friday.

Jewelry and watches, home and garden, and consumer electronics are the categories expected to pick up this holiday shopping season, says Mr. Mudd. Indeed, Nielsen/NetRatings counted consumer electronics as the second-most-visited category online on Black Friday, just after toys and video games.

Some of the hottest-selling consumer electronics items this season will be digital music players, digital cameras, and flat-panel TVs, says Mr. Baker, which supports a trend toward the digitization of the American home.

Walmart.com, the online shopping site for the retail giant, had a surprisingly successful day with online sales on Thanksgiving Day, which is typically a slow shopping day since its brick and mortar stores are closed, the company said. Online sales nearly doubled compared to last year. Online sales on Black Friday also were strong, according to Wal-Mart, which expects 20 to 30 percent growth for the entire online holiday shopping season. But the store experienced disappointing brick and mortar sales on Friday and on through Thanksgiving weekend, the company said. As a result, the No. 1 retailer cut its comparative sales forecast to 0.7 percent growth from the 2 to 4 percent figure that was predicted last month.