Cyber Monday Breaks eCommerce Records, Surpasses Expectations

Adobe Digital Insights has released its latest holiday shopping data. As predicted, this year’s Cyber Monday was one for the record books.

Online shopping sales starting at midnight sent customers into a purchasing frenzy, dropping over $3.45 billion online on Cyber Monday — a reported 12 percent increase over the same day last year.

This is a new record for the largest day in U.S. eCommerce. The total amount in sales was 3 percent higher than that of even behemoth shopping day Black Friday. Adobe noted that top-selling items included the Sony PlayStation 4, Samsung 4K TVs and Lego sets.

Overall, it was found that total November eCommerce sales in the U.S. are up 7.6 percent year over year. Thus far, the holiday shopping season is projected to have driven a total of $39.9 billion in online revenue, a 7.4 percent increase year over year, with 27 out of 28 days generating over $1 billion.

Tamara Gaffney, principal analyst of Adobe Digital Insights, said in a statement: “Cyber Monday is on track to be the biggest online shopping day ever, surpassing our forecast by almost $27 million, or 0.8 percent. This indicates that consumers still had more appetite for online shopping, despite the incredible volume of online sales on Black Friday. Prices are expected to start climbing after today as retailers shift attention to extend the season late into December with quick shipping deals and the option to click and collect in store.”

Mobile drove the majority of visits to retail websites during Cyber Monday, taking 53 percent of total traffic. Forty-four percent of visits reportedly came from smartphones, while 9 percent came from shoppers using tablets. In terms of completed sales, 35 percent came from mobile devices (25 percent from smartphones and 10 percent from tablets).

Additionally, conversions were higher on Cyber Monday than the holiday shopping averages­ — with smartphones at 1.9 percent, tablets at 3.7 percent and desktops at 4.3 percent.