Black Friday turned out to be hugely successful for online shopping, but experts predict Cyber Monday may be bigger.
Adobe Digital Insights is projecting Cyber Monday to take in up to $6.6 billion in online sales, an increase of 16.5% over a recording setting year in 2016. By comparison, shoppers spent over $5 billion on line during Black Friday, said Adobe.
The group said it tracks more than 80% of spending online at the 100 largest retail websites in America.
An analyst with Adobe said digital shoppers usually hold off buying items until the end and that is why Cyber Monday is so successful.
The analyst said that orders online tend to reach their peak between 8 pm and 11 pm on Cyber Monday. By then, the analyst said shoppers are well aware of exactly what they intend to purchase. There is also some sense of urgency as they know that the deals will disappear for good beginning Tuesday morning.
It is not anything new said the analyst. If a new record is set this Cyber Monday, it will become the sixth consecutive year that a new record was set for Cyber Monday. Last year’s version of the online shopping days took in more than $5.6 billion worth of sales to set a new high, according to data released by Adobe.
It should be noted that recently Adobe changed the way it calculates sales estimates and its previous figures for sales were all revised. Initially Cyber Monday of 2016 brought in over $3.45 billion for retailers online said Adobe.
The online shopping boom is an important trend that the brick and mortar traditional retailers have sadly for them become all too familiar with. Traffic in stores has suffered greatly over the last few years as consumers shift to shopping online for its convenience since it can be done at home.
Nevertheless, data from prior years shows that the overwhelming majority of spending across the entire holiday season will take place at brick and mortar cash registers.
In 2016, November and December retail holiday sales topped $658 billion says the National Retail Federation. During the same period online sales topped out at only $123 million of the overall $658 billion.
