Early sales data indicates consumers could give the nation's retailers a merrier Christmas than last year.

On Cyber Monday, online retailers experienced a sales surge that could surpass last year's numbers by 20 percent.   
    
The news comes in addition to already strong online sales growth on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday. Online research firm comScore Incorporated reports Internet shoppers spent about $1.1 billion on those two days - up more than 15 percent from 2009.

"The beginning of the online holiday shopping season has gotten off to an extremely positive start, outperforming our earlier expectations," comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni said in a statement.

"While this early spending surge reflects, in part, heavy promotional activity on the part of retailers occurring earlier this season, it is nevertheless a very encouraging sign," he said.