Three days after bringing in $5.03 billion online on Black Friday, retailers outdid themselves once again, reeling in a record $6.59 billion on Cyber Monday — 16.8% growth year-over-year. For the first time in the U.S., Cyber Monday mobile revenue has broken the $2 billion barrier, according to Adobe Digital Insights.
Mobile growth continues to accelerate: shoppers placed 37% of orders and made 56% of visits from phones on Cyber Monday, according to data from Salesforce. These totals well outpace last year’s figures of 29% and 48%, respectively. As more consumers become comfortable purchasing with a mobile device, retailers must continue developing digital experiences to match their expectations across all devices.
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“The past Cyber Monday behavior of shopping on your work computer during the day is almost completely reversed,” said Taylor Schreiner, Director of Adobe Digital Insights in a statement. “This year, mobile shopping was dominant both in the morning and afternoon, and desktop only staged a comeback in the evening when people were home. Smartphones have become the de facto device for mobile shopping, while tablets continue to be more used as entertainment and gaming devices.”
Mobile shopping now makesup 28.1% of total Cyber Monday revenue, compared to 64.1% generated on desktop, according to Qubit.
“Black November” Sales Reach $50 Billion But Discounts Continue To Play Major Role
Regardless of what device shoppers used, one fact remains clear: predictions of a “Black November” have thus far lived up to their billing. Adobe noted that the holiday season to date (Nov. 1 to Nov. 27) has brought in $50 billion in online shopping revenue, growing 16.8% year-over-year. Average spending per person over the five-day period from Thanksgiving Day to Cyber Monday was $335.47, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF).
Although Cyber Monday brought in the most online revenue overall, it appears people spent less on individual purchases, especially after splurging throughout the weekend. The average order value (AOV) of a Cyber Monday purchase was $103, down from $106 in 2016, and $10 less than the AOV of Black Friday purchases.
“This is due in large part to deeper discounts on Monday than on Friday, and lower (or no) free shipping thresholds,” wrote Rick Kenney, Head of Consumer Insights at Salesforce Commerce Cloud in a blog post. “One big reason: retail’s seemingly never-ending mandate to beat the previous year’s results, which typically means ‘anniversarying’ last year’s deal, year-in-year-out, for the days when we would wait for Monday to buy.”
Cyber Monday Has The Revenue, Black Friday Has The Fame
The NRF estimated that 81 million U.S. consumers shopped online on Cyber Monday, well ahead of the 66 million that did so on Black Friday. Yet although Cyber Monday has become the posterchild for online holiday shopping, the day still hasn’t dominated social media, giving weight to the idea that retailers can be doing more to promote Cyber Monday deals.
There were 422,782 Cyber Monday-related terms and hashtags from Nov. 20 to Nov. 27, creating a potential reach of 10.2 billion, according to Sprout Social. Black Friday still dwarfs Cyber Monday in this department, with 2.07 million day-related terms and messages with a potential reach of 29 billion during the same time.
