Cyber Monday Sets High Mark for Online Shopping at $11.3B: Adobe

After a “surprisingly strong” Cyber weekend, Adobe widened its forecast for Cyber Monday sales to $11.2 billion - $11.6 billion, after it's October projection of an $11.2 billion Cyber Monday spend. Analyst Vivek Pandya emailed that the Monday $11.3 billion tally is “a milestone for e-commerce and shows that consumers were moved by heavy discounting” amid “oversupply and a softening consumer spending environment.” Discounts “spurred online spending to levels that were higher than expected,” he said.

EMarketer’s forecast for Cyber Monday was $11.8 billion. Analyst Arielle Feger blogged Tuesday that “consumers are spending -- and that’s a good sign.” To maintain momentum, retailers should “continue to use discounts to bring customers in and offer flexible payment and pickup options to make it even easier to shop during the busy holiday season.”

The total Cyber Week spend, from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, was $35.27 billion, up 4% year on year, Adobe said. Consumers spent $107.7 billion online Nov. 1-28, up 8.7% year on year. Earlier and frequent discounts produced 20 shopping days of over $3 billion and eight $2 billion-plus days, it said.

Discounts on electronics peaked at 25% off list price Monday vs. 8% last year, Adobe said. TV discounts topped out at 17% Monday vs. 11% a year ago, and computer discounts reached 20% vs. 10%. Cyber Monday spending was led by toy shopping, which had sales growth of 684% vs. an average day in October, Adobe said; electronics and computers were up 391% and 372%, respectively. Buy now, pay later orders rose 85% during the period from the prior week and revenue increased 88%, it said.

Mobile shopping, which set a record on Thanksgiving with 55% of all online sales, remained strong through Cyber Monday, Adobe said. Phones and tablets accounted for 51% of sales for the five days, 43% on Cyber Monday. Retailers’ investments in the mobile shopping experience are paying off, Adobe said. Shoppers’ return to stores led to a drop in curbside pickup usage, said the analytics firm. Buy online, pick up in stores (BOPIS) was used in 13% of online orders on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, down from 21% last year; BOPIS usage slipped a point to 17% of orders on Cyber Monday, Adobe said.

Paid search was the biggest sales driver among marketing channels at 28% of sales, said Adobe. Direct and affiliate marketing represented 18% of sales, email 17% and organic search 15%, it said. Revenue directly attributable to social media remained at less than 5% of total sales during Cyber Week.