“It certainly is becoming more like Cyber November because people are getting a jump on their holiday shopping much earlier year over year”, Joanna Lambert, vice president of global consumer product and engineering at PayPal, said.
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(121 million compared to 127 million last year according to the National Retail Foundation.) Still, weekend sales reached $8 billion – following a disappointing weekend sales period last year – while Monday sales passed $3 billion – when last year Cyber Monday broke United States records with sales just over $2 billion.
Mobile, which includes phones and tablets, accounted for 53 percent of shopping visits driving 32 percent of online sales, the data showed.
This year’s Black Friday bonanza was the first time in the United Kingdom that online retail sales surpassed £1 billion in one day. “The ease of online shopping through mobile devices now lets millions of people research what they want as well as make timely purchases any day of the weekend – a win-win for both retailers and shoppers”.
While Amazon had a big day, brick-and-mortar retailers actually saw some good online action, too, with growth of 18% in online sales on Cyber Monday – more than the online-only retailers.
“Online traffic was so astronomical that several retailers experienced temporary outages and slow checkouts, but that didn’t stall consumer spending”, said Adobe analyst Tamara Gaffney.
Consumer spending at brick-and-mortar retail locations in the USA fell 10 percent to $20.4 billion over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend, according to ShopperTrak. “Most importantly, the success of the holiday season doesn’t hinge on the performance of a single day”. That’s 16 percent more than they spent a year ago.
Cyber Monday shoppers mainly went after electronics, including TVs, tablets and the Apple Watch.
From an hourly shopping perspective, conversions were the highest (9.8x the daily average) at 12 p.m. EST on Black Friday.
It has forecast another £733m will be spent on Manic Monday next week – a rise of 10% on a year ago.
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As many as one in ten of the 40 million items ordered on Black Friday and Cyber Monday could arrive late, according to estimates by supply chain experts LCP Consulting.
