Score Big Savings on Cyber Monday – Last Chance for Holiday Shopping!

As Cyber Monday arrives, consumers are actively searching the internet for online bargains, concluding the five-day shopping extravaganza following Thanksgiving.

Although e-commerce is now a part of our daily lives and much of the Christmas shopping season, Cyber Monday – a term coined by the National Retail Federation in 2005 – remains the biggest online shopping day of the year. , thanks to the trades and hype created by the industry to fuel it.

Adobe Analytics, which tracks online shopping, expects consumers to spend between $12.0 billion and $12.4 billion on Monday, making it the biggest online shopping day ever.

For many major retailers, a “Cyber Monday” sale is a days-long event that starts over the weekend. For example, Amazon’s started on Saturday and continues until Monday. Target’s two-day event began overnight Sunday, while Arkansas-based Walmart began its latest sales Sunday evening.

Consumer spending during Cyber Week, the five big shopping days between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, gives a strong indication of how much shoppers are willing to pay during the holiday season.

Shoppers have endured persistently high inflation this year, which recently hit its lowest level in more than two years but is still painfully evident in things like auto and health insurance and some staples like beef and bread.

Economists, meanwhile, have warned that the type of spending is likely to decline in the coming months.

Consumers rely on savings to fuel purchases, and credit card debt, which has increased along with defaults, is facing more pressure. They’ve also introduced “Buy Now, Pay Later” payment plans, which allow buyers to make payments over time without — typically — interest.

The Retail Trade Association expects Christmas shopping to be more expensive this year than last year. But according to it, the pace of spending will slow down and increase by 3-4 percent from 5.4 percent in 2022.

A clear sense of consumer spending will not emerge until the government publishes the sales data for the holiday season, but according to preliminary data, there are good signs on the retail side.

According to Adobe, shoppers spent a record $9.8 billion online on Friday, up 7.5 percent from last year. Meanwhile, Salesforce, which also tracks online shopping, estimated that Black Friday online sales totaled $16.4 billion in the U.S. and $70.9 billion worldwide. Mastercard SpendingPulse, which tracks in-person and online spending across all payment methods, reported that Black Friday sales excluding the auto industry were up 2.5% from a year ago — a smaller but still significant jump from 2022’s double-digit growth.

According to the company, online sales increased by 8.5%, while in-store purchases only increased by 1.1%. These figures have not been adjusted for inflation, meaning that actual store sales may have decreased due to high prices.

Other data showed that during Black Friday, store traffic increased somewhat – the large crowds in stores nationwide were more reminiscent of the days before the pandemic.

RetailNext, which measures real-time foot traffic in stores, reported that store traffic increased by 2.1% on Friday. Sensormatic Solutions, which also tracks in-store traffic, saw greater growth — reporting a 4.6% jump in shopper visits on Black Friday compared to a year ago. It also marks a reversal from the average decline in store traffic through 2023 to date, Sensormatic said.

Grant Gustafson, director of retail consulting and analytics at Sensormatic, said this was the most significant Black Friday increase his organization has seen in recent memory.

“This is a really good barometer of what to expect towards the end of the holiday season,” Gustafson said. “The overall trend we saw in traffic is a really positive sign not only for brick-and-mortar retail, but also for online retail — that the consumer is willing to pay when they find out (about a significant sale).”

Electronics, apparel, toys and jewelry were the categories that saw the most growth this Black Friday, according to Adobe. Sales of health and beauty products and sports equipment also increased significantly.

Retailers began offering holiday deals in October of this year, continuing a trend that began during the COVID-19 pandemic and has been revived several times due to supply chain blockages or inflationary issues. But many consumers waited until Black Friday to buy.

Investment bank Jefferies, which tracked 54 retailers during Black Friday, said most of them offered flat discounts compared to last year. Data from Salesforce further showed that discount rates rose to 30% in the US on Black Friday, prompting customers to buy.

“Consumers who are feeling financial pressure are taking control of their household finances and have been really diligent and patient,” said Rob Garf, vice president of retail at Salesforce.

“They are once again playing — and winning the game — discount chicken, where they wait for retailers to discount to where they feel most comfortable,” he said. “And so it happens.”

According to statistics from Adobe, spending exceeded Black Friday weekend, with consumers spending $10.3 billion to take advantage of discounts that have been higher than in years. By Thanksgiving, Adobe said shoppers had spent another $5.6 billion, up 5.5% from last year. That’s nearly double the amount consumers spent online in 2017, indicating a continued shift to online shopping during the gift-giving season.

The retail industry, which has grown in recent years, is also expected to be a significant part of the Christmas shopping season. Salesforce predicts that 17 percent of Christmas gifts this year will come from resale marketplaces like Facebook Marketplace or ThreadUp, as well as brands like Canada Goose, Patagonia and Coach, which offer resale options on their sites for eco-conscious consumers or those who enjoy vintage deals.