Holiday Shopping Showdown: Black Friday vs. Cyber Monday. Now up: Cyber Monday

Cyber Monday has seemed to become as important as Black Friday in recent years, with more and more stores offering deals online for the Monday after Thanksgiving Day.

According to IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark, overall sales on Cyber Monday were up 17.5% from last year.

Contributing to that increase in sales was Michigan State University creative advertising junior Patricia Szczepanski.

"On Cyber Monday, I shopped online at Alex & Ani," Szczepanski said. "I also bought some tickets from Ticketmaster."

MSU engineering senior Ben Caneba said he also shopped on Cyber Monday this year, as opposed to last year when he shopped in stores on Black Friday.

"I waited in line at Target for an iPad for four hours last year," Caneba said. "I wasn't even able to get the iPad."

Caneba said it was great being able to shop online and not have to wait in line at the store after his bad experience last year.