Cyber Monday lived up to its lofty reputation as the biggest online shopping day of the year — with a lot of help from artificial intelligence (AI).
How big? Consumers spent a record $13.3 billion online, up 7.3% from last year, with peak spending a staggering $15.7 million per minute between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. ET, said Adobe Analytics, which tracks online shopping. [Salesforce Inc. pegged Monday’s figure at $12.8 billion.]
Some 72.3 million people scoured the internet for deals Monday, according to Adobe.
The influence of AI-driven chatbots and assistants continued to spur the online shopping habits of consumers, according to Adobe: Black Friday traffic to retail sites from chatbots (e.g., shoppers clicking on a link to a retail site) soared 1,800% compared to the same time last year, with similar results anticipated for Cyber Monday. An Adobe survey of 5,000 U.S. consumers found 20% rely on chatbots to find the best deals, followed by quickly finding specific items online (19%) and getting brand recommendations (15%).
Top-selling goods included televisions, digital cameras, Bluetooth headphones and speakers, Lego sets, Cookeez Makery Oven, Xbox Series X, jewelry, NBA 2K25, skincare products, and PlayStation 5, according to Adobe.
Retail behemoths Amazon.com Inc., Target Corp. and Walmart Inc. helped rev Monday’s sales with multi-day deals over Thanksgiving weekend. Inflation-weary shoppers increasingly are adopting “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) plans to offset costs and manage their holiday budgets, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF), which gave the event its name in 2005.
So-called BNPL for this year’s holiday season is forecast to hit $18.5 billion, Adobe Analytics said, compared with $16.6 billion in 2023 and $14.5 billion in 2022. BNPL was $993 million on Cyber Monday.
The trade group says holiday shoppers will spend more this year online and in stores than in 2023. Spending growth will slow, however, at 2.5% to 3.5%, compared with 3.9% last year.
Consumers spent $10.8 billion online on Black Friday, a 10% annual jump.
“Discounts have exceeded expectations beginning on Thanksgiving, and Cyber Monday has essentially become ‘last call’ for shoppers looking to get the best deals this season,” Vivek Pandya, lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights, said in Adobe’s report. “We are on track for a Cyber Week, the five-day period between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, that crosses the $40 billion mark online and sets a new record for U.S. e-commerce.” [The current total is $41.1 billion, up 8% year-over-year.]
Online spending totaled $118.2 billion between Nov. 1 and Dec. 1. Adobe Analytics predicts total purchases on e-commerce sites from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31 will reach an all-time high of about $241 billion this year.
Of course, cybercriminals are also doing some shopping of their own: An estimated 4.6% of attempted e-commerce purchases between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday may have been fraudulent, compared with 6% a year ago, according to TransUnion.
