Cyber Monday Online Sales Hit a Record $14.25 Billion, Adobe Says

U.S. shoppers spent $14.25 billion online on Cyber Monday, a record for the day and 7.1 percent more than a year earlier, Adobe said in a release based on its Adobe Analytics data. The total was slightly above Adobe’s initial projection of $14.2 billion, which had assumed 6.3 percent growth. Spending peaked at about $16 million a minute between 8 and 10 p.m., the company said.

The Associated Press, citing Adobe earlier in the day, had reported that consumers had spent $9.1 billion by 6:30 p.m. Eastern, up 4.5 percent, and that Adobe expected electronics and apparel to lead. Adobe’s final data bore that out: electronics reached $3.7 billion, up 12.8 percent, and apparel $2.6 billion, up 5.2 percent. Furniture added $1.8 billion, up 5.4 percent. Together the three made up 57 percent of online spending.

Cyber Week, the five days from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, totaled $44.2 billion, up 7.7 percent, Adobe said. Black Friday set a record of $11.8 billion, up 9.1 percent, and Thanksgiving brought $6.4 billion, up 5.3 percent. Black Friday growth outpaced Cyber Monday for a second straight year, according to Adobe.

Retailers leaned on price cuts. Adobe said peak discounts reached 31 percent in electronics, 28 percent in toys and 25 percent in apparel. “U.S. retailers leaned heavily on discounts this holiday season to drive online demand,” said Vivek Pandya, lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights. The AP reported that consumers may be buying fewer total items and shopping with more precision on tighter budgets.

Credit played a visible role. Buy-now-pay-later spending reached an all-time high of $1.03 billion on Cyber Monday, up 4.2 percent, with mobile devices accounting for 79.4 percent of those transactions, Adobe said. The AP noted that credit card debt and delinquencies on short-term loans have been rising, and that households are watching for effects from tariffs on imported goods and from layoffs and the recent 43-day government shutdown.

Phones continued to dominate. Mobile devices accounted for 57.5 percent of Cyber Monday sales, or $8.2 billion, up 8 percent, according to Adobe. Mobile’s share on Thanksgiving was 61.6 percent. Adobe also said traffic to U.S. retail sites from artificial intelligence tools rose 670 percent on Cyber Monday, though it cautioned that the user base is still modest.

Another data provider painted a more cautious picture. Salesforce, cited by the AP, said U.S. online sales reached $3.4 billion by noon, up 2.6 percent, while U.S. orders fell 1 percent, and it expected full-day U.S. sales of $13.3 billion, up 4 percent. The two companies measure sales differently.

The National Retail Federation expects U.S. holiday spending to exceed $1 trillion for the first time, with growth of 3.7 to 4.2 percent, slower than last year’s 4.3 percent, the AP reported. Adobe’s forecast for the full online season, which runs through Dec. 31, is $253.4 billion, up 5.3 percent.