- Cyber Monday spend hits $13.3bn as the season total draws in on $240.8bn
- American consumers spent $15.8 million every minute at its peak
- Generative AI is starting to play a bigger role in purchasing decisions
American consumers pushed Cyber Monday spend to $13.3 billion this year, making it the biggest Cyber Monday in history and even surpassing initial predictions by $100 million.
Up 7.3% year-over-year, Cyber Monday has now become the largest online shopping day of the year, building on the hype of the preceding Black Friday deals.
In two hours alone between 8pm and 10pm, US buyers spent a whopping $15.8 million every minute, or about $1.9 billion in 120 minutes.
Adobe’s analysis found that the five-day Cyber Week – beginning on Thanksgiving and ending on Cyber Monday – brought in $41.1 billion in sales, up 8.2% year-on-year. Current predictions estimate that the two-month holiday season, from November 1 to December 31, will bring in $240.8 billion in sales. If this is true, it would mark an 8.4% yearly rise, but already this season sales stand at $131.5 billion, up 9.0%.
Continually tough economic conditions have kept some consumers thinking twice about their spending, however generous discounts countered this and kept up spending. Electronics saw an average markdown of 30.1%, toys at 26.1%, and clothing at 23.2%.
Surprisingly, while the true power of artificial intelligence is yet to be realized outside of the office, GenAI-powered chatbots helped consumers make purchasing decisions more than ever this year, boosting traffic to retail sites by a staggering 1,950%. Social media influencers also saw their share of revenue increase 6.8% year-over-year.
Most consumers (57%) purchased via mobile, with Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services accounting for $991.2 million in transactions – about 7.5% of Cyber Monday’s purchases from a financial perspective.
Adobe Digital Insights lead analyst Vivek Pandya commented: “Early discounts were strong enough that many consumers felt comfortable hitting the buy button earlier on during Cyber Week, with Cyber Monday becoming ‘last call’ for shoppers to take advantage of big holiday deals.”
Looking ahead, Adobe predicts discounts to become less attractive through December, but key categories like electronics, toys and appliances are still likely to offer healthy savings, enabling buyers to purchase higher ticket items and driving total spend up.