- Americans have alreadyspent more than 72 billion

in holiday shopping since November 1st.

That is a new record and online sales

are a big reason why.

- Consumer optimism, consumer sentiment

and confidence has beenextremely good this year.

And it is carrying through now

as expected into the holidayChristmas shopping season.

- We are expecting this to be our biggest

Cyber Monday ever

over the course of the holiday season,

we'll ship millions of packages

from our performancecenters around the world.

- [Heather] Adobe Analyticstracks the shopping data

and its analyst thinks thatthis weekend's harsh weather,

likely boosted online sales.

Dan Celia with FinancialIssues Stewardship Ministries

says it's also this.

A growing number ofshoppers have become adept

at getting what they want on their phones.

- Amazon taught consumers

how to buy online.

And then what has happened this year,

is Walmart.com and Target.com

have come in like gang busters

and taken advantage of that,

Walmart cyber sales up 52%.

- [Heather] Retailers offered an average

of 30% off on Monday.

The best discounts of the year,

according to Sales Force.

An analyst inspector recorded 9.4 billion

in online sales from Monday online.

Up 19% from last year.

This year's Black Fridaywas also the biggest online

with traffic in brick andmortar stores down by 2%.

Economic optimist see it as a sign

of a healthy economy

and investors are hopingthe so-called traditional

Santa Claus rally couldboost the dow in the SMP

to record gains at the end of the month.

But today, shoppers have an opportunity

to give back with a new tradition known

as Giving Tuesday.

- Take a deep breath from all the spending

and saying, you know what,

today's the day I'm gonna give back

some of the incredible resources

that God has given us.

- [Heather] Heather Sells, CBN News.