AP – Consumers in the United States (US) are scouring the Internet for online deals as they look to take 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 season, 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 USD13.2 billion, 6.1 per cent more than last year. That would make it the season’s – and the year’s – biggest – shopping day for e-commerce.
Online spending is expected to peak between the hours of 8pm and 10pm, per Adobe – reaching an estimated USD15.7 million spent every minute. For several major retailers, a Cyber Monday sale is a dayslong event that began over the Thanksgiving weekend.
Consumer spending for Cyber Week – the five major shopping days between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday – provides a strong indication of how much shoppers are willing to spend for the holidays.
Many US consumers continue to experience sticker shock following the period of post-pandemic inflation, which left prices for many goods and services higher than they were three years ago. But retail sales nonetheless have remained strong, and the economy has kept growing at a healthy pace.
At the same time, credit card debt and delinquencies have been rising. More shoppers than ever are also on track to use “buy now, pay later” plans this holiday season, which allows them to delay payments on holiday decor, gifts and other items.
Many economist have also warned that President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to impose tariffs next year on foreign goods coming into the US would lead 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 slow slightly, the trade group said, growing 2.5 per cent to 3.5 per cent – compared to 3.9 per cent in 2023.
A clear sense of consumer spending patterns during the holiday season won’t emerge until the government releases sales data for the period. But some preliminary data from other sources shows some encouraging signs for retailers.
Lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights Vivek Pandya noted that discounts from Thanksgiving onward have “exceeded expectations” – and online spending throughout Cyber Week is on track to cross a record USD40 billion mark combined. US shoppers spent USD10.8 billion online on Black Friday, a 10.2 per cent increase over last year, according to Adobe Analytics. That’s also more than double what consumers spent in 2017, when Black Friday pulled in roughly USD5 billion in online sales. Consumers also spent a record USD6.1 billion online on Thanksgiving Day, Adobe said. And on Saturday and Sunday, shoppers spent another USD10.9 billion online, up 5.8 per cent over last year.
