Adobe: Consumers spent $10.7 billion on Cyber Monday, $109.8 billion so far this holiday season

Adobe today released the final online shopping figures for Cyber Monday and Cyber Week 2021. As part of the Adobe Digital Economy Index, Adobe provides a comprehensive view into U.S. e-commerce by analyzing direct consumer transactions online. Based on Adobe Analytics data, the analysis covers over one trillion visits to U.S. retail sites, 100 million SKUs, and 18 product categories — more than any other technology company or research organization.

Consumers spent a total of $10.7B on Cyber Monday, which is down 1.4 percent YoY. Although it is about $100 million shy of what shoppers spent last year ($10.8B), it still remains the biggest online shopping day of the year. In the peak hour (11pm-12am ET / 8pm-9pm PT on the west coast), consumers spent $12 million every minute.

Cyber Week (from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday) has now driven a total of $33.9B in online spend, down 1.4 percent YoY, as Black Friday dipped 1.3 percent YoY at $8.9B vs $9B (2020) and Thanksgiving Day stayed flat at $5.1B.

“With early deals in October, consumers were not waiting around for discounts on big shopping days like Cyber Monday and Black Friday,” said Taylor Schreiner, director, Adobe Digital Insights. “This was further fueled by growing awareness of supply chain challenges and product availability. It spread out e-commerce spending across the months of October and November, putting us on track for a season that still will break online shopping records.”

So far this season (Nov. 1 to Nov. 29), consumers have already spent $109.8B online, growing significantly at 11.9 percent over last year. It means that 22 days have now exceeded $3B in online spend, a new milestone. In 2020, only 9 days topped $3B at this point. The season has smoothed out considerably, with e-commerce becoming a more ubiquitous daily activity. Adobe expects the full season (Nov. 1 to Dec. 31) to hit $207B at 10 percent YoY growth — a new record.

On Cyber Monday, online spend was driven by categories including toys (sales up by nearly 11x pre-season levels in Sept. 2021), gift cards (up by 7x), books (up by 7x), video games (up by 6x), and baby/toddler products (up by 6x). In the appliance category (up by 5.6x overall) microwave ovens and small kitchen appliances topped the list (up by 9.6x and 7.1x, respectively).

Additional Insights from the Adobe Digital Economy Index:

• Top sellers on Cyber Monday included:

  • Toys: Hot Wheels, Nerf toys, Baby Alive, Paw Patrol, Squeakee toys and Tamagotchi Pix
  • Video Games: Just Dance 2022, Mario Party Superstars, Spider Man: Miles Morales, FIFA 22, Metroid Dread
  • Electronics: AirPods, Apple Watches, Apple Pencils, laptops (HP, Lenovo and Dell), Nintendo Switch and Switch Lite, Xbox Series S, Oculus Quest 2, TVs (Sony and Samsung)

• Shopping carts get larger: Consumers have seen the final price point of their shopping carts jump 13.9 percent on Cyber Monday (up 19 percent in the season overall). It indicates that some are buying bigger ticket items, such as furniture, while others are feeling the effects of persistent online inflation (e-commerce prices have been up for 17 consecutive months).

• Discounts remain weak: On Cyber Monday, discount levels for electronics were at –12 percent (vs –27 percent last year), TVs at –13 percent (vs –18 percent last year), apparel at –18 percent (vs –20 percent last year), sporting goods at –8 percent (vs –20 percent last year), appliances at –8 percent (vs –20 percent last year). For shoppers looking to buy a new computer, the day with the deepest discounts is expected to be this Wed (Dec. 1) with discount levels at –26 percent. Adobe expects that starting today, discounts will generally begin to fade (in the 5 percent to 10 percent range) as shipping costs begin to rise.

• Out-of-stock remains high: On Cyber Monday, the prevalence of out-of-stock messages was up 8 percent compared to a week before (on Nov. 22). In the month of Nov. 2021 so far (through Nov. 29), the prevalence of out-of-stock messages is up 169 percent vs pre-pandemic levels (Jan. 2020) and up 258 percent vs two holiday seasons ago (Nov. 2019). Adobe expects this to persist through the rest of Dec.

• Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) usage sees an uptick: On Cyber Monday, usage of BNPL services saw a bump with revenue up 21 percent YoY and orders up 1 percent YoY. It is the exception, and the first time this season where usage had not slowed. But with the biggest online shopping day behind us, Adobe does not expect another surge in BNPL usage until closer to Christmas.

• Curbside pickup maintains popularity: As online shopping picked up, curbside pickup was used in 18 percent of all online orders on Cyber Monday (for retailers that offer the service), vs 20 percent last year. The durable demand for curbside pickup continues to show the value of physical stores.

• Mobile shopping hits a wall: On Cyber Monday, smartphones accounted for just 39.7 percent of online sales (vs desktop), up 8.4 percent YoY. With many consumers working from home, smartphones are losing some of its potential as a major shopping channel. For years, the trajectory showed that mobile was on a course to surpass the 50 percent mark in share of online sales, which has since been derailed. Consumers are using their phones to browse instead (57 percent share of web visits).