EXCLUSIVE—Digital shopping is expected to hit a high today during Cyber Monday, and most consumers should be ready for it: especially considering that a good number of them even did their Black Friday shopping on digital channels.
This year’s Black Friday saw a startling 24% increase in digital shopping from last year, according to a report by Salesforce. A record $5.03 billion was spent online by the end of the day, according to Adobe Analytics, in a report that measures 80% of digital spending from about 100 major retailers.
These figures seem to point towards the continuing consumer shift towards online shopping, perhaps especially when the alternative involves standing in the cold outside of a Best Buy for five hours.
In fact, it seems as though a good segment of consumers didn’t even bother to shop on their laptops: about 60% of retail site traffic this year came from smartphones (up from 53% last year), according to Salesforce, and 42% of Black Friday orders came from phones, according to Salesforce.
This figure could represent an overall shift towards mobile e-commerce, as this is the first year that computers accounted for less than half (49%) of Black Friday orders, according to the Salesforce report — which incidentally also states that they “do expect Friday’s mobile traffic to outpace Cyber Monday’s.”
That’s not to say Black Friday sales will top Cyber Monday’s: today’s sales are expected to hover around $6.6 billion, according to Adobe Systems Inc, representing a 17% growth in sales volume from last year.
The growth in online and mobile alternatives comes as several larger retailers, including Macy’s and Sears, have closed stores, and cut other costs associated with maintaining a physical brand presence.
Meanwhile, retailers Amazon and Walmart remain locked in battle for e-commerce sales — both companies are competing for online sales with deals on electronics, toys, and other categories.
Counting both Black Friday and Cyber Monday as well as normal shopping, U.S. retailers are expected to reach about $107 billion this year from sales in November and December.