eBay's PayPal Becomes Hidden Holiday Spending Winner (EBAY)

eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) may be the unexpected winner of cyber-shopping for the 2009  holiday shopping season.  Today, the company released data showing that its PayPal unit posted strong gains for yesterday on the famed “Cyber-Monday” as well as for Black Friday.  While it is not a new phenomenon that eBay does well each year around Christmas, it seems that the short supplies of retailer inventories for many popular items is sending consumers over to eBay stores rather than to traditional online e-tailers.

PayPal saw double-digit growth for its third consecutive year in online sales, or total payment volume, on Cyber Monday.

The Cyber-Monday results were about 20% in year over year growth preceded by higher total payment volume throughout the Thanksgiving weekend.   The company also noted that total payment volume on Thanksgiving rose by 25% over Thanksgiving Day 2008, while the Black Friday total payment volume rose by about 20%.   Regardless of how you value eBay, that is very impressive considering that eBay was considered a stagnating company at the start of this year.

But here is the even-larger jump for the convergence crowd… mobile payments… eBay said that mobile payments through PayPal also rose a sharp 140% on Black Friday and an even higher 190% on Cyber Monday from the same days in 2008.

eBay also decided to sneak in some promotional data.  Its Bill Me Later is hosting an Outstanding Offer program featuring daily exclusive and limited quantity offers available only to Bill Me Later customers during the holiday season.  Participating online stores include MacMall, Bluefly, Overstock and others.

Sometimes the real winners of the holiday season are not the obvious winners.

JON C. OGG