Strong Monday Sales Cap a Strong Start to the Holiday Shopping Season

Online sales continued to surge on Cyber Monday, totaling $13.3 billion and up 7.3% from Cyber Monday last year, according to Adobe Digital Insights. During the peak shopping hours of 8 p.m. to 10 p.m., consumers spent $15.8 million per minute.

Cyber Monday capped a strong five-day sales period from Thanksgiving through Monday in which online shoppers spent $41.1 billion, up 8.2% from the same period a year ago.

While online shoppers spent heavily on Cyber Monday, they set records on Thanksgiving day and on Black Friday, spending $6.1 billion and $10.8 billion, respectively, Adobe says. During the opening weekend of the holiday season (Nov. 30 through Dec. 1), online shoppers spent a record $240.8 billion, an 8.4% increase from the same period a year ago.

Some 57% of online sales on Cyber Monday came from consumers shopping on mobile devices. Those sales totaled $7.6 billion, a 13.3% increase from a year ago. As recently as 2019, just 33% of purchases came from shoppers using mobile devices. Between Nov. 1 and Dec. 2, mobile shoppers accounted for 53.1% of online sales, spending $69.8 billion, a 14.1% increase from the same period a year ago, says Adobe.   

Buy now, pay later usage hit an all-time high on Cyber Monday, driving $991.2 million in spending, a 5.5% year-over-year increase. More than 75% of BNPL transactions were initiated by consumers shopping on mobile devices devices on Cyber Monday. 

Deep discounts were a big driver of consumer spending, with discounts on electronics, for example, peaking at 30.1% off list price. Toys, apparel, television, and computers were also heavily discounted, with discounts in those categories averaging more than 20% off list price.

Merchants are still expected to continue offering attractive discounts to entice consumers to continue to purchasing during the holiday shopping season. Consumers can expect to see discounts averaging in the high to mid-teens in such categories such as toys, electronics, televisions, apparel, sporting goods, and appliances, Adobe says.

“While Cyber Monday remained the season’s and year’s biggest online-shopping day, year-over-year growth was stronger on both Thanksgiving and Black Friday,” Vivek Pandya, lead analyst, Adobe Digital Insights says in a statement. “Early discounts were strong enough that many consumers felt comfortable hitting the buy button earlier on during Cyber Week, with Cyber Monday becoming ‘last call’ for shoppers to take advantage of big holiday deals.”   

Between Nov. 1 and Dec. 2, holiday shoppers spent $131.5 billion online, up 9% from the same period a year ago, according to Adobe.

In related news, contactless cards accounted for 58% of in-person transactions in the United States on Black Friday, while tap-to-pay on iPhone usage increased nearly twofold (177%) according to the processor Adyen NV.

While online sales were strong for Black Friday, Adyen reported its merchants saw holiday shoppers spend 51% more in-store on Black Friday than they did online.

Afterpay, Block Inc.’s BNPL service, saw a 10% increase in sales between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Millennials were the most active users, with 44% making a purchase with Afterpay during this period, followed by Gen Zers (26%) and Gen Xers (24%). 

Gift cards remain a popular holiday item, according to Block, with more than 450,000 cards sold between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the processor says.