With Amazon.com Inc.’s annual Prime Day sales event pushed to October because of the coronavirus pandemic, shoppers were geared up for holiday shopping earlier than ever. But they were even more keyed up for savings and deals on their holiday purchases.

62% of online shoppers bought holiday gifts on Prime Day, according to a post-Prime Day survey conducted by Digital Commerce 360 on Oct. 15-16 based on 530 respondents. Still, 29% didn’t make a purchase on Prime Day because they were holding out for Cyber 5 discounts. Amazon is No. 1 in the 2020 Digital Commerce 360 Top 1000.

And these patient holiday shoppers may have been in luck because early discounting for Cyber 5 was rampant among many online retailers.

Of the top 50 online retailers, 78% of them offered a “Black Friday” deal on Monday, Nov. 23, four days before Black Friday, according to a check by Digital Commerce 360 editors. Only 11 of the top 50 merchants were not offering a Black Friday deal on Nov. 23.

“With more Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping happening online, shoppers were ready to comparison-shop and started looking for deals early,” says Rigel Cable, director, analytics and SEO, Astound Commerce. “This meant that retailers were competing for these early sales.”

Cyber Monday still reigned supreme for online promotions and sales. 88% of the top 50 online retailers that Digital Commerce 360 ranks in its Top 1000 offered Cyber Monday deals, according to site visits by Digital Commerce 360 editors. Only six merchants in the top 50 were not offering Cyber Monday deals. However, most of those retailers are business-to-business-focused merchants such as MSC Industrial Supply Co. Inc. (No. 32 in the Top 1000), W.W. Grainger Inc. (No. 11) and CDW Corp. (No. 17).

Plus, of the 77 digitally native vertical brands, or DNVBs, in the 2020 Digital Commerce 360 Top 1000, 71.4% were offering some kind of discount on Cyber Monday, according to research by Digital Commerce 360. That’s up from 69.9% of DNVBs that offered a Cyber Monday discount last year.

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