The holiday season is off to a good start for online retailers. According to a report by Adobe Analytics, Cyber Monday sales are projected to increase by 5.1%. If this forecast holds, the Monday after Thanksgiving would continue to be the biggest day of the year for shopping, amassing a record $11.2 billion in sales.
However, the analysis also revealed that both Cyber Monday and Black Friday are losing popularity among citizens. This is because people shop online virtually every day, and shoppers see that discounts don't just last for one day, but for the entire season. Despite forecasts that Cyber Week (which runs from Thanksgiving Thursday through Cyber Monday itself) will amass $34.8 billion in total revenue, up 2.8% from last year, overall participation is down slightly (from 16.6% to 16.3%).
More than half a billion in online commerce
According to Patrick Brown, Adobe's vice president of growth and information marketing, the drop in participation could be due to the existence of pre-Black Friday and Cyber Monday discounts:
The shape of the holiday season will look different this year, with early discounting in October pulling up spend that would have occurred around Cyber Week. Even though we expect to see single-digit growth online this season, it is notable that consumers have already spent over $590 billion online this year at 8.9% growth, highlighting the resiliency of e-commerce demand.
This $590 billion, Brown assures, refers only to the period between January and August of this year, not including the $11.2 billion that is projected to be spent on Cyber Monday nor the revenue from Black Friday and the rest of the holiday season.
