But whether Cyber Monday can hold on to its relevance will be a big question next year as deals continue to appear earlier.
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Retail sales on Cyber Monday, which is considered to be the busiest day of the year, are said to touch new records, with online sales expected to hit the mark of almost $3bn. Consumers saw an average discount of 20%.
Adobe projects that sales have reached nearly $3 billion on Cyber Monday 2015, which is an increase of 12% from a year ago.
The 10-year-old shopping holiday has lost some of its luster as retailers push sales forward on the calendar to Thanksgiving and Black Friday.
“It also turns out a lot of retailers have been getting some backlash from being open on Thanksgiving Day itself previous year, so a lot of them have chosen to keep their stores closed and be present on the web”, Permer said.
Mobile apps also played a bigger role, such as the expansion of Target’s partnership with the app Curbside, which allows customers to place an order and pick it up at a Target store without leaving their vehicle. According to the National Retail Federation, more people shopped online this year than stood in line on black Friday. Hannah Swan is one of them, and said she didn’t go Black Friday shopping for the first time. Target led Walmart while Gap was ahead of H&M. Amazon (AMZN) shares are up 0.6%. That puts sales on track for $3 billion, Adobe said. “Thank you for your patience!” the message read.
But with broadband more prevalent, online shopping is a year-round affair. At stores, sales dipped in the early morning and late evening hours.
One thing that could hamper the rise of Cyber Monday in the long run is the probability of products to be out of stock immediately. On Black Friday, gift cards and Star Wars items were its top sellers: “In total, shoppers purchased approx”.
IBM reports that mobile sales on Black Friday were even higher, and grew 23.8% to account for 40% of online sales. Those numbers provide more evidence that holiday shopping is increasingly shifting online and, in particular, mobile devices.
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Despite this, huge online retailers such as Amazon could keep sales high since e-commerce companies usually concentrate deals and bundles during Cyber Monday.
