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Strong Cyber Monday sales follow a big Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday

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By Lisa Lacy, n/a

November 28, 2016 | 4 min read

2016 may be a year many want to forget – including the deaths of notable figures like Florence Henderson, Gwen Ifill, Sharon Jones and Leonard Cohen in November alone, as well as election surprises in both the UK and the US – but, despite what may be perceived as its faults, 2016 is shaping up to have at least one redeeming quality in the form of a particularly strong holiday shopping season.

Cyber Monday sales are on pace to hit nearly $3.6 billion in 2016, Adobe said.

Cyber Monday sales are on pace to hit nearly $3.6 billion in 2016, Adobe said.

In fact, early data from Adobe indicates Cyber Monday brought in $540 million between midnight and 10 a.m. ET and will likely reach $3.36 billion in online sales overall, marking 9.4% year-over-year growth.

Of that figure, mobile shopping in the first ten hours accounted for $205 million, Adobe said.

In that same ten-hour period, top-selling electronics included Sony PS4, Microsoft Xbox, Samsung 4K TVs, Apple iPads and Amazon Fire, Adobe said. Top-selling toys included Lego sets, Shopkins, Nerf, Barbie and Little Live Pets. What’s more, as of 10 ET, Lego sets held the #1 spot for top units sold and the most revenue generated, Adobe added.

At the same time, Adobe said Cyber Monday social buzz is down 82% from last year with 96,449 mentions in 2016 versus 535,810 mentions in 2015. Nevertheless, per Adobe, the top products being talked about on social include Sony PS4, FitBit, Pokemon Sun/Moon, Xbox, Barbie, Lego, Amazon Echo, Google Home, Apple Watch and Frozen.

Despite the decline in buzz, retailers do indeed have much to celebrate. To wit: holiday shopping from November 1 to 27 brought in $36.5 billion in online revenue alone, which marks a 7.1% increase year-over-year – and, what’s more, 26 out of those 27 days generated over $1 billion, Adobe added.

From November 24 to 27 specifically, which saw $9.36 billion in sales and marked a 16.4% increase year-over-year, mobile accounted for 56% of visits and 37% of sales. In addition, Adobe said Black Friday became the first day in retail history to drive over $1 billion in mobile revenue with $1.2 billion, which is 33% growth year-over-year. Black Friday also set a new record by surpassing $3 billion for the first time with $3.34 billion, which Adobe said is 21.6% growth year-over-year. And Thanksgiving Day online sales were $1.93 billion, which is an 11.5% increase year-over-year.

What’s more, search ads (38.4%) and direct promotions (24.9%) continue to drive the bulk of sales for retailers, but have declined compared to the seasonal average as channels such as email (17.4%) and shopper helper sites (16.8%) continue to see growth, Adobe said.

“We’ve seen record performance in online shopping over the last few days. Black Friday may overtake Cyber Monday for the first time ever due to Black Friday’s higher than expected revenue of $3.34 billion,” said Becky Tasker, managing analyst of Adobe Digital Insights, in a statement. “Based on early morning shopping results, Cyber Monday is on track to hit our prediction of $3.36 billion and could retain its position as the top online shopping day of the season, but only if retailers continue to push as good of deals today as they have over the holiday weekend.”

But that isn’t to say in-demand gifts will necessarily be readily available everywhere. Out of stock messages were at 9.1% over the long weekend, which was lower than levels seen on Black Friday (10.5%) and slightly lower than levels last year (9.7%). According to Adobe, the latest out of stock risk electronics include Beats By Dr. Dre Headphones, Garmin Vivofit Jr. and Nintendo 2DS with Yo-Kai Watch Game. Further, per Adobe, the latest out of stock risk toys include the Hot Wheels Super 6 Lane Raceway, Fisher-Price Thomas & Friends Take-n-Play Thomas' Favorite Friends and Shopkins Kinstructions Ice Cream Shop.

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