As the dust settles on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, stats show it has been a very mobile peak so far – with more to come.
Based on Adobe Analytics data, a record $7.9 billion was spent online by the end of Cyber Monday, an increase of 19.3 % YOY making it the largest online shopping day of all time in the US and beating last year’s $6.6 billion record.
Mobile transactions soared with $2.2 billion of Cyber Monday sales coming from smartphones alone, representing the highest ever YOY growth of 55.6 %, and the first time ever that over half of visits (54.3%) came from mobile devices.
The figures also show that shopping on mobile devices overall saw a significant spike representing 54.3% of site visits (46.6% smartphones, 7.7% tablets), up 18.9% YoY, and 35.9% of revenue (27.7% smartphones, 8.2% tablets) – a collective 18.3 % YOY Increase.
On Cyber Monday, direct website traffic ranked highest for driving revenue at 25.9% share of sales (up 0.7% YoY), followed by paid search at 21.6% (up 6.2% YoY), natural search at 21.1% (down 5.3%), and email at 25.9% (up 2.0%). Similar to past years, social media continued to have minimal impact on online sales, at a 1.3% share.
Consistent with shopping trends to-date, Cyber Monday saw a significant growth spike in Buy Online Pick Up In-Store (BOPIS) as shoppers continued to look for the convenience of click-and-collect with an increase of 65% YOY, a sign that retailer investments to bridge offline and online experiences are paying dividends. In the full 24 hours on Cyber Monday Americans spent a combined 11,000 thousand years, or whopping 95 million hours, on online shopping.
“Converting mobile traffic to sales has long been a thorn in the side of retailers, but investments in making the experience faster and easier have paid off,” says Taylor Schreiner, director, Adobe Digital Insights. “Cyber Monday shoppers relied heavily on their mobile devices, resulting in an unprecedented 55.6% year-over-year increase from smartphones alone. Additionally, Buy Online Pick Up Instore saw a record 65% increase, signaling that retailers are increasingly fulfilling consumer expectations for integrated cross-channel experiences.”
Early data on Giving Tuesday – the day after Cyber Monday, when many US shoppers donate to charity – shows that consumers continue to shop online in strong numbers following Cyber Monday. Adobe says it expects online spend for the day to be $2.9 billion, which represents strong YoY growth with 26%.
Planned giving to charitable causes is expected to increase slightly compared to 2017, with more males than females planning to donate. The holiday season represents two-fifths of charitable donations over the year, with one third of those occurring in during November/December (39% up from 34% in 2017.)
More than three-quarters of shoppers are expected to give charities, with the most popular causes being religious organizations, animal welfare, health, and humanitarian/disaster relief. Among younger donors, education and research and public policy are also popular causes.
