Column: Amazon and eBay thrive on Cyber Monday

Before freaking out over the crummy numbers from Black Friday store sales, take a look at the much more positive preliminary numbers from holiday sales over the Internet.

For that matter, a closer look at the overall sales numbers, online and offline, suggest that the predictions of a poor holiday season are at least premature if not plain wrong.

Seen overall, the latest reports bear out the prediction that holiday season sales this year will demonstrate that American consumer habits have become truly hybrid -- split between Internet and brick-and-mortar shopping, and aided by the use of mobile devices.

First the bad news: Black Friday in stores was a bust compared to past years. Early numbers from ShopperTrak indicated that traffic at stores Friday fell 11.4% and revenue plunged 13.2% compared with 2012 figures.