Cyber Monday 2016 Smashes Online Shopping Records

https://blog.adobe.com/media_7b0ffe6c6a00f70215949e13ff5f01fd8528f9b5.gifRetailers rejoice—the holiday season is off to a smashing start! Cyber Monday just set a new all-time record for online sales: $3.45 billion, an increase of 12.1 percent over last year’s holiday shopping spree. This year’s Black Friday will go down in the record books too. It was the very first time the day exceeded $3 billion in online sales, and the first day ever to drive over $1 billion in mobile revenue.

Cyber Monday started strong for mobile, with consumers drifting to their laptops and desktops by evening. But even with the late-day shift, mobile generated $1.07 billion in revenue, a 34 percent increase year-over-year (YoY), and accounted for 47 percent of visits to retail websites (38 percent via smartphone, 9 percent via tablet). Mobile was even hot a few days earlier, as consumers gathered with their families on Thanksgiving Day—57 percent of Thanksgiving visits and 40 percent of sales happened over phones and tablets.

What were Cyber Monday shoppers after this season? The must-haves in electronics included Sony PlayStation 4, Microsoft Xbox, Samsung 4K TV, Apple iPhone and Amazon Fire. Top sellers in toys were Lego sets, Nerf, Shopkins, Barbie and the Pie Face game.

The best-selling toys and electronics also topped the most-frequently-sold-out lists. Out-of-stock messages hit 12 percent on Cyber Monday (.5 percent less than the same day last year).

But even with a few sold-out favorites, consumers scored big. Cyber Monday shoppers raked in substantial discounts on televisions (with an average discount of 21.4 percent), tablets (discounts of 21.1 percent) and toys (discounts of 14.6 percent).

The Cyber Monday numbers also confirm that online shopping is quickly growing into a national holiday tradition. This year, there was notable YoY sales growth in every state and the nation’s capital. Washington, D.C. saw the largest leap in Cyber Monday spending—they were up by 36.2 percent—followed by Maryland (23.1 percent) and Alaska (20.6 percent). The biggest spenders, taking into account sales from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, were Californians at $1.7 billion, and New Yorkers at $1.1 billion.

Of course, the joy of the holidays isn’t only in buying—Giving Tuesday looks strong this year, too. Compared with the November average, charitable donations-per-visit were up 93 percent on desktops, 128 percent on tablets and 53 percent on smartphones.

So far this holiday season (November 1-28), shoppers have spent $39.97 billion online, a 7.6% increase YoY—and it’s not over yet! Adobe projects a whopping $91.6 billion in online sales by the end. To keep up with the trends and the numbers, follow Adobe Digital Insights on CMO.com.

Adobe’s insights are based on aggregated, anonymous data from 23 billion visits to retail websites. Adobe’s retail reports offer the most comprehensive data compilation in the industry, measuring 80% of all online transactions from the top 100 U.S. retailers. $7.50 of every $10 spent with the top 500 retailers goes through Adobe Marketing Cloud.