Cyber Monday sales this year were at least 20 percent higher than they were a year ago, a few research firms are reporting. Sales reached $887 million a year ago, but yesterday's sales numbers have yet to be reported.

Online sales on Cyber Monday, a sort of Black Friday for the Internet immediately following Thanksgiving weekend, have risen every year for the past five years, according to comScore Data Gem. Between 2005 and 2008, sales on that day typically rose each year by over $100 million, but between 2008 and 2009, in the heart of the U.S. economic slump, slowed growth resulted in only a $41 million increase.

No specific sales numbers have yet been posted for this year’s Cyber Monday, but eBay’s PayPal reported a 21 percent year-over-year rise in payment volume. Similarly, Coremetrics, a division of IBM, said online sales were up 19.4 percent versus a year ago and 31 percent higher when compared with Black Friday sales this year.

The actual results might even be brighter, though. Mercent, an online shopping network serving Amazon, eBay, Google and Yahoo, reported 33 percent growth versus a year ago. The largest growth of all was seen by online retailer Buy.com, which reported a 48 percent jump in sales volume versus a year ago.

Some thought that both Black Friday and Cyber Monday would suffer sales losses because retailers have increasingly pushed deals out earlier to attract holiday shoppers before the competition. But, as seen in Black Friday’s sales growth from $595 million in 2009 to $648 million in 2010, that isn’t how it turned out.

While no reports have yet surfaced comparing various retailers, Amazon is typically the most successful online retailer during the holidays. On Black Friday, traffic to the site increased by 25 percent compared to 2009. And on Cyber Monday in 2009, Amazon accounted for 16 percent of retail traffic.

All in all, customers seem much more willing this year to spend money.