With the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping frenzy dying down, retailers’ and brands’ results are rolling in, and one thing is clear: E-commerce ruled the day.
On Cyber Monday, consumers spent a total of over $12 billion in the U.S., according to data provided to Glossy by Adobe. According to data from Afterpay, the average shopper’s cart size during the Black Friday to Cyber Monday weekend was 3.9 times bigger when shopping online than when shopping in person. Discounts were, on average, twice as steep online compared to in-store, at 28% to 14%, according to Afterpay. And Shopify merchants reported a record $9.3 billion in sales between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, marking a 24% increase year-over-year.
Notably, almost 60% of e-commerce sales during Cyber Week have been completed on mobile devices, an increase from 55% last year.
The higher sales in the e-commerce channel have been owed, in part, to the lingering effects of inflation making customers more price-conscious. As shoppers continue to be more cautious with their spending habits, online shopping offers a better way to survey a wider variety of prices and find a better deal.
“The 2023 holiday shopping season began with a lot of uncertainty, as consumers shifted their spending to services while dealing with rising costs across different facets of their lives,” said Vivek Pandya, lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights.
Adobe has been tracking shopping trends throughout the holiday season. Consumers have already spent $109 billion, and Adobe expects holiday spending to reach over $200 billion for the whole season ending December 31. That’s a 7% increase over last year, suggesting that the lure of discounts is enough to draw people out of their spending withdrawals. Adobe noted that e-commerce prices were 6% lower this year.
“The record online spending across Cyber Week shows the impact that discounts can have on consumer demand, especially with quality products that drove a lot of impulse shopping,” Pandya said.
Afterpay noted an increase in customers using buy-now, pay-later this season, with more than 70 million transactions completed on Cyber Monday, a 14% increase from the year prior. Adobe observed the same trend, noting a 42% increase in BNPL usage this season.
“We continue to see e-commerce spending accelerate as consumers exercise their buying power, seeking the best deals and more options outside of credit cards to fund their purchases,” said Alex Fisher, head of revenue at Afterpay. “We’ve seen the rise of emerging digital channels like shopping apps that are also capturing the attention of holiday shoppers. However, they have not completely replaced the in-store experience so retailers need to find a balanced omnichannel approach, such as nailing down their mobile commerce strategy so they can have a leg up on promoting their products and deals no matter where they’re selling.”
Jackie Stauffer, founder and CEO of the skin-care brand Recess, who also founded the marketing consultancy The Sprout Collective, said that the focus on discounts from consumers favored direct-to-consumer brands and e-commerce over physical retail.
“Consumers are much more price sensitive,” she said. “The discounts encourage spending. And online and DTC brands have a much easier time controlling their discounts than ones that are heavily reliant on retail.”
