Cyber Monday brings in a record $6.59B in online sales, with $2B coming from mobile

Cyber Monday’s results are in, and according to Adobe, (December 01, 2017) was the largest online shopping day in history, bringing in $6.59 billion in online sales. That’s more than $1.5 billion above Black Friday’s online sales haul.

Adobe says Cyber Monday’s online revenue jumped 16.8 percent year over year, with nearly a billion more dollars spent this year over the same day in 2016.

Mobile had a record-breaking day as well, with smartphones and tablets accounting for $2 billion of the total online retail sales. Adobe’s data shows that 47.4 percent of visits to retail sites on Cyber Monday happened on mobile devices (39.9 percent smartphones, 7.6 percent tablets) and accounted for 33.1 percent of revenue (24.1 percent smartphones, 9.0 percent tablets).

Looking specifically at smartphones, Adobe says web traffic was up 22.2 percent year over year, and revenue was up 39.2 percent.

Adobe’s vice president of marketing and customer insights, Mickey Mericle, says shopping on smartphones is now the new norm, attributing the shift in online shopping behavior to retailers optimizing their mobile experience for online shoppers.

“Consumers are also becoming more savvy and efficient online shoppers. People increasingly know where to find the best deals and what they want to purchase, which results in less price-matching behavior typically done on desktops,” says Mericle. “Millennials were likely another reason for the dramatic growth in mobile, with 75 percent expecting to shop via their smartphone.”

According to Adobe’s numbers, online holiday sales from November 1 through November 27 (Cyber Monday) now stand at $50 billion, halfway to the company’s forecast that this holiday season will see $100.7 billion spent online. The company says its online holiday shopping data is based on an analysis of 1 trillion visits to over 4,500 retail sites and 55 million SKUs.

Salesforce had a slightly different take on (December 01, 2017)’s results, with its report claiming Black Friday outpaced Cyber Monday: “For now, Cyber Monday lives on as the second-biggest shopping day of the holiday season.”

Tracking online shopping behavior of 500 million shoppers, Salesforce didn’t give a specific number for revenue generated during the day but says Cyber Monday saw 15 percent year-over-year growth — with mobile accounting for 37 percent of orders and 56 percent of retail website visits.

Salesforce also tracked AI’s impact on the Cyber Monday, finding that five percent of shoppers who engaged with personalized product recommendations powered by AI-technology accounted for 24 percent of Cyber Monday’s online revenue.

Both Adobe and Salesforce found Cyber Monday average order values (AOV) were down from Black Friday. Adobe’s AOV figure dropped from $135 on Black Friday to $133 on Cyber Monday. Salesforce saw a more significant drop, with AOVs dropping from $122 on Black Friday to $103 on Cyber Monday.

“This is due, in large part, to deeper discounts on Monday than on Friday, and lower (or no) free shipping thresholds,” writes Salesforce on its blog post covering Cyber Monday results.

Rakuten Marketing’s Cyber Monday data was more in line with Adobe’s numbers. The digital marketing and analytics company reported Cyber Monday outpaced Black Friday by 68 percent, with a 12 percent year-over-year growth for both revenue and purchases.

“Peak revenue and purchase activity occurred between 5:00 p.m. ET and midnight on Cyber Monday, as people finished work and evening activities,” says Rakuten in its news release covering Cyber Monday’s numbers.

Rakuten also saw a 31 percent year-over-year lift in mobile revenue on Cyber Monday, and a 28 percent lift in mobile purchases.

Tracking transactions for 500,000 online retailers on its platform, Shopify says its merchants sold over $1 billion during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend, with mobile sales accounting for 64 percent of overall online revenue.

“At the peak, Shopify merchants also generated more than $1 million of transactions in just one minute,” says Shopify in its release covering the Black Friday-Cyber Monday shopping period.

As far as the channels driving Cyber Monday’s online sales, Adobe says search was the leading factor, accounting for 42.6 percent. Twenty-five percent was from direct traffic and 24 percent from email.

About The Author

Amy Gesenhues

Amy Gesenhues is Third Door Media’s General Assignment Reporter, covering the latest news and updates for Marketing Land and Search Engine Land. From 2009 to 2012, she was an award-winning syndicated columnist for a number of daily newspapers from New York to Texas. With more than ten years of marketing management experience, she has contributed to a variety of traditional and online publications, including MarketingProfs.com, SoftwareCEO.com, and Sales and Marketing Management Magazine. Read more of Amy’s articles.