Cyber Monday 2024 results overtook totals from the same day in 2023 to reach the highest U.S. online sales for any day historically, once again beating projections, according to Adobe Analytics data.
Adobe Analytics had projected U.S. consumers would spend $13.2 billion online on Cyber Monday 2024, which already would have been a record. Then, consumers exceeded that by $100 million, spending $13.3 billion on Cyber Monday this year. That’s 7.3% more than they spent in 2023.
After years of starting holiday shopping earlier, this year, it looks like consumers waited to spend during the Cyber 5, said James Risley, research data manager and senior analyst at Digital Commerce 360.
“While the Amazon-born summer and fall deal days drew some shoppers to buy, holiday shopping was postponed during the uncertain election season amid hopes for a better (or more stable) economy post-election day,” Risley said. “With some sources pointing out higher discounts this year, shoppers may have felt like it was better to buy now. And with a late Thanksgiving, there’s not much time for better deals to come around, so shoppers took advantage this weekend.”
Adobe Analytics data is based on more than 1 trillion visits to U.S. retail sites, 100 million SKUs and 18 product categories, according to the company. 200 online retailers in the Top 1000 use Adobe Analytics for their web analytics, and 97 use it for site design and development. Top 1000 online retailers also use it for content delivery and management, as an ecommerce platform, a marketing platform, for personalization and more.
The Top 1000 is Digital Commerce 360’s database of North America’s largest online retailers based on their annual ecommerce sales.
Cyber Monday reigns supreme when it comes to online sales
Consumers spent $15.8 million every minute in the peak hours of 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Cyber Monday, according to Adobe data.
“While Cyber Monday remained the season’s and year’s biggest online shopping day, year-over-year growth was stronger on both Thanksgiving and Black Friday,” said Vivek Pandya, lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights, in a statement. “Early discounts were strong enough that many consumers felt comfortable hitting the buy button earlier on during Cyber Week, with Cyber Monday becoming ‘last call’ for shoppers to take advantage of big holiday deals.”
Net-new demand, as opposed to higher prices, continues to drive consumers’ online spending, according to Adobe Analytics.
Adobe said its Digital Price Index shows ecommerce prices have fallen for 26 consecutive months (down 2.9% year over year in October 2024). It said its figures are not adjusted for inflation, but growth in consumer spending would be even stronger if online deflation were factored in.
Meanwhile, mobile shopping accounted for more than half of the day’s total (57%). Consumers spent $7.6 billion on their mobile devices on Cyber Monday, which is $1.5 billion than they spent online all of Thanksgiving day. It’s also 13.3% more than they spent on their mobile devices on Cyber Monday 2023.
In the 2019 holiday season, Adobe said, 33% of Cyber Monday online sales came through a mobile device.
On that note, buy now, pay later (BNPL) usage hit an all-time high on Cyber Monday 2024. BNPL drove $991.2 million on Cyber Monday, 5.5% growth over the same day the year before. And more than three-quarters (75.2%) of BNPL transactions happened on a mobile device.
Top sellers on Cyber Monday 2024
“Shoppers took advantage of bigger-than-expected discounts,” Adobe said, including:
- Electronics (30.1% off listed price)
- Toys (26.1% off)
- Apparel (23.2% off)
- Televisions (21.8%)
- Computers (21.5%)
Toy sales on Cyber Monday grew 680% compared to an average day in October 2024, according to Adobe. Other categories with high growth included:
- Personal care (online sales up 530%)
- Jewelry (up 478%)
- Appliances (up 464%)
- Electronics (up 452%)
- Apparel (up 392%)
After Cyber Monday’s record-setting ecommerce sales, Adobe Analytics projects the full 2024 holiday season to reach $240.8 billion. That would be 8.4% growth over 2023. Adobe defines the holiday season as Nov. 1 through Dec. 31.
Global ecommerce sales on Cyber Monday
Globally, Cyber Monday drove $49.7 billion in ecommerce sales, according to platform provider Salesforce. That’s 3% more than a year ago.
Salesforce also estimates that U.S. consumers spent $12.8 billion online on Cyber Monday, 2% year-over-year growth, based on its data analysis. Meanwhile, Cyber Monday ecommerce sales in the European Union grew 4%.
Salesforce says it draws on global shopping data from more than 1.5 billion shoppers from its Commerce Cloud, Marketing Cloud and Service Cloud platforms. In North America, 76 of the Top 2000 online retailers use Salesforce as their ecommerce platform. In 2023, those 76 online retailers combined for more than $136.077 billion in web sales.
Merchants selling on Shopify, specifically, brought in $11.5 billion in global sales from Black Friday through Cyber Monday. That’s a 24% year-over-year increase from $9.3 billion for merchants on Shopify’s ecommerce platform.
The average order value for Shopify merchants in that time frame was $108.56. 67,000 Shopify merchants had their highest-selling day yet over those four days.
“What was once a ‘doorbuster’ shopping moment dominated by legacy players is now a global commerce event that businesses of all sizes participate in,” said Shopify president Harley Finkelstein, in a statement about the period from Black Friday through Cyber Monday.
In North America, 117 of the Top 2000 online retailers use Shopify as their ecommerce platform. In 2023, those 117 online retailers combined for more than $9.72 billion in web sales.
Growth by category on Cyber Monday
Both in the U.S. and globally, luxury handbags took the top spot for year-over-year growth (up 10% domestically and 20% worldwide). General handbags and footwear took the next-highest spot for vertical growth (9% in the U.S. and 13% globally).
“Cyber Monday was a day for splurge purchases with luxury handbags and apparel categories seeing incredible growth,” said Caila Schwartz, director of consumer insights at Salesforce, in a statement. “Throughout the weekend, retailers sweetened their discounts, enticing shoppers to wait for better deals before making purchases on higher-ticket items.”
Meanwhile, the verticals with the highest average discount on Cyber Monday were:
Globally:
- Makeup (40% off listed price)
- General apparel (37% off)
- Skin care (33% off)
In the U.S.:
- General apparel (39% off)
- Health and beauty (34% off)
- Active apparel and footwear (23% off)
Payment data
Block Inc. — which owns payment platforms Square, Afterpay and Cash App — said it experienced 17% growth in transactions across its suite from Black Friday through Cyber Monday.
It noted that online shopping cart sizes were double the size of in-person carts. Furthermore, BNPL transactions through Afterpay grew 10% year over year during the four-day period.
Millennials account for the largest share of Afterpay usage at 44%, followed by Gen Z at 26%, Gen X at 24%, and Boomers at 6%, Block said.
Here’s last year’s update on Cyber Monday online sales.
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