Wal-mart has record Cyber Monday orders as shoppers seek deals

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said its website took a record number of orders yesterday as shoppers sought discounts on the day known as Cyber Monday.

Customers viewed more than 1.5 billion pages on Walmart.com in the five days through yesterday, a period the retailer has dubbed “The New Black Friday.” Mobile devices accounted for about 70 percent of traffic, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer said in a statement, without disclosing sales figures.

Wal-Mart is spreading out its promotions to lure shoppers during a holiday season that promises to hold a number of challenges. While analysts have predicted retail sales will increase in the final two months of the year, many of those purchases are expected to shift online or be won with discounts that threaten retailers' profitability.

To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Jarvis in London at pjarvisbloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Celeste Perri at cperribloomberg.net James Boxell, Kim McLaughlin