Cyber Monday, the day traditionally associated with online shopping, is quickly becoming obsolete: e-commerce giants keep rolling out discounts earlier and earlier and soon we’ll have to talk about “Cyber Week”. Over the last two years, Americans have spent more during Cyber Monday than on Thanksgiving or Black Friday.
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Brick-and-mortar retail stores took a back seat to
online holiday sales during the Black Friday-Cyber Monday shopping period. Mobile devices accounted for nearly half (49%) of shopping visits, Adobe reported, split 38:11 between smartphones and tablets.
Amazon issued a press release on Tuesday to boast that the holiday shopping weekend was the best ever for Amazon hardware: “The top-selling products across all of the products available on Amazon.com this Black Friday were Amazon devices – #1 was Fire, #2 was Fire TV Stick”, it said. Amazon said some orders in the US and Canada had incorrectly applied shipping charges, but it discovered the error and refunded the charges.
Among the biggest retailer headlines yesterday was that Target’s website crashed due to high demand.
Experian’s senior retail consultant, James Miller, added: “Retailers still have more opportunities to reach customers in the run-up to Christmas, with Manic Monday on 7 December representing the time when consumers look to order gifts to ensure they receive them before Christmas”. Both Thanksgiving and Black Friday online sales have outpaced the rise of Cyber Monday.
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A report from Adobe Systems, Inc. has found that 2015 saw a new record high for sales on Cyber Monday, America’s annual online sales event. The name was also a nod to online shopping being done at work where faster connections made it easier to browse. But whether Cyber Monday can hold on to its relevance will be a big question next year as deals continue to appear earlier. The $2.98bn total marked a 12% increase on 2014 and boosted online sales over the whole Thanksgiving weekend to $11bn, a 15% year-on-year rise.
