Shoppers didn't disappoint on Cyber Monday as sales met estimates. Cyber Monday sales this year hit a record high of $9.4 billion making it the biggest single-day shopping event in the history of the United States.
This is also the first time that consumers on a single day spent more than $3 billion using their smartphones. Although preliminary reports suggested that sales fell short of estimates, a late night surge in sales saw consumers spending $2.9 billion between 10 pm and 2 am EST, recording almost one-third of the day's total revenues.
Sales jumped a whopping 19% compared with last year, according o Adobe Analytics. Understandably, retailers who have been reeling under pressure for the past few quarters finally saw sales picking up with all Thanksgiving, Black Friday and now Cyber Monday sales hit new highs.
A good start to the holiday season
Cyber Monday over the past few years has emerged as the biggest shopping event in the country's annual shopping calendar. This year sales hit $9.4 million increasing 19% compared with last year's sales of $7.9 billion.
This is not only higher than Black Friday and Thanksgiving online sales of $5.4 billion and $4.2, respectively, billion but also has surpassed Amazon's Prime Day sales figures.
This year's Cyber Monday thus has become the biggest ever single-day shopping event in the country's history.
This year's robust sales were once again led by the big retailers namely Best Buy, target Corporation and Walmart. Best Buy so far has been the best performer this year on Cyber Monday. All big retailers with revenues of more than $1 billion annually witnessed a combined jump of 540% in online sales compared to an average day. However, e-commerce giant Amazon didn't release any data on its Cyber Monday sales.
Why the surge in sales
An average consumer spent 6% more this year compared with last year. This year, smaller retailers with less than 50 million in annual sales too saw a huge surge in revenues. Sales of smaller retailers increased an astounding 337%.
Toys, which see a rise in demand every holiday season, were once again high in demand on this year's Cyber Monday. Other products like home furnishings, fashion and health and personal care products too were hot-selling items.
Another possible reason for the surge in sales this year could be the adverse weather conditions in many states, which made people shop online instead of queuing up in front of shops on Thanksgiving and Black Friday.
