Cyber Monday shoppers expected to set record on biggest day for online shopping

Consumers in the United States are scouring the internet for online deals as they look to receive advantage of the post-Thanksgiving shopping marathon with Cyber Monday.

Even though e-commerce is now part and parcel of many people’s regular routines and the holiday shopping period, Cyber Monday — a term coined in 2005 by the National Retail Federation — has become the biggest online shopping day of the year, thanks to the deals and the hype the industry has created to fuel it.

Adobe Analytics, which tracks online shopping, expects consumers to spend a record $13.2 billion on Monday, 6.1% more than last year. That would make it the period’s — and the year’s — biggest — shopping day for e-commerce.

For several major retailers, a Cyber Monday sale is a days-long occurrence that began over the Thanksgiving weekend. Amazon kicked off its sales occurrence correct after midnight Pacific period on Saturday. Target’s two days of discount offers on its website and app began overnight Sunday. Walmart rolled out its Cyber Monday offers for Walmart+ members on Sunday afternoon and opened it up to all customers three hours later, at 8 p.m. Eastern period.

buyer spending for Cyber Week — the five major shopping days between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday — provides a powerful indication of how much shoppers are willing to spend for the holidays.

Many U.S. consumers continue to encounter sticker shock following the period of post-pandemic expense boost that left prices for many goods and services higher than they were three years ago. But retail sales nonetheless have remained powerful, and the economy has kept growing at a well pace.

At the same period, borrowing card debt and delinquencies have been rising. More shoppers than ever are also on track to use “buy now, pay later” plans this holiday period, which allows them to delay payments on holiday decor, gifts and other items.

Many economist have also warned that President-elect Donald Trump’s schedule to impose tariffs next year on foreign goods coming into the United States would navigator to higher prices on everything from food to clothing to automobiles.

The National Retail Federation expects holiday shoppers to spend more this year both in stores and online than last year. But the pace of spending growth will leisurely slightly, the trade throng said, growing 2.5% to 3.5% — compared to 3.9% in 2023.

A obvious sense of buyer spending patterns during the holiday period won’t emerge until the government releases sales data for the period, though preliminary data from other sources shows some encouraging signs for retailers.

U.S. shoppers spent $10.8 billion online on Black Friday, a 10.2% boost over last year, according to Adobe Analytics. That’s also more than double what consumers spent in 2017, when Black Friday pulled in roughly $5 billion in online sales. Consumers also spent a record $6.1 billion online on Thanksgiving Day, Adobe said.

Software business Salesforce, which also tracks online shopping, estimated that Black Friday online sales totaled $17.5 billion in the U.S. and $74.4 billion globally.

E-commerce platform Shopify said its merchants raked in a record $5 billion in sales worldwide on Black Friday. At its peak, sales reached $4.6 million per minute — with top categories by volume including clothing, cosmetics and fitness products, according to the Canadian business.

Toys, electronics, home goods, self-worry and beauty categories were among the key drivers of holiday spending on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, according to Adobe. “warm products” included Lego sets, espresso machines, fitness trackers, makeup and skin worry.

Other data showed physical stores saw fewer customers on Black Friday, underscoring how the huge crowds that were once synonymous with the day after Thanksgiving are now more than joyful to shop from the comfort of their homes.

RetailNext, which measures real-period foot traffic in stores, reported that its early data showed store traffic on Friday was down 3.2% in the U.S. compared to last year, with the biggest dip happening in the Midwest.

Sensormatic Solutions, which also tracks store traffic, said its preliminary analysis showed retail store traffic on Black Friday was down 8.2% compared to 2023.

Grant Gustafson, head of retail consulting and analytics at Sensormatic Solutions, noted that in-store traffic was getting spread across multiple days since many retailers offered charitable discounts before and after Black Friday,

“Some of the extended Black Friday promotions really ended up leading to a little bit of a softer day-of traffic than expected,” Gustafson said.

While physical items like toys and electronics are always popular around the holidays, experts note that consumers have turned to more “encounter-driven spending” in recent years, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic waned.

Jie Zhang, a marketing professor at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, told The Associated Press ahead of the post-Thanksgiving shopping weekend that he expected shoppers to “indulge themselves a bit more” when it comes to self-gifting.

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AP Business Writer Wyatte Grantham-Philips contributed to this update from recent York.