In its latest report, Adobe Analytics has shared data and insights from the latest holiday season ecommerce sales, specifically for Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday. A major insight is that shoppers spent $109 billion this year during the entire shopping season, up from last year’s $90 billion.
Having said that, Cyber Monday saw a dip of 1.4% year-on-year (Y-o-Y) in spending. 2020 witnessed $10.8 billion in spending while this year saw $10.7 billion, a drop of $100 million in spending. The Cyber Week (Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday) as a whole also saw a dip of 1.4% in spending ($33.9 billion online spendings) Y-o-Y. Black Friday spendings saw a dip of 1.3% Y-o-Y, while Thanksgiving spendings remained flat at $5.1 billion.
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So, What Happened?
According to Taylor Schreiner, director, Adobe Digital Insights, people did not wait for discounts on the big shopping days this time. Simultaneously, consumers were also aware of possible issues with the supply chain and product availability during the big days. He said, “With early deals in October, consumers were not waiting around for discounts on big shopping days like Cyber Monday and Black Friday. This was further fueled by growing awareness of supply chain challenges and product availability. It spread out ecommerce spending across the months of October and November, putting us on track for a season that still will break online shopping records.â€
Another report by AmazonOpens a new window may support this statement as it claimed that its holiday season starting October 4th was the biggest kickoff for the holiday shopping season ever. Adobe Analytics report also shows that consumers spent a total of $109 billion during this year’s holiday season compared to $90 billion last year. Further, 22 days during this year’s shopping season witnessed sales of over $3 billion, compared to only nine days last year. All these imply that consumers may have spread out their shopping throughout the holiday season.
Adobe expects the total ecommerce spending from November 1st through December 31st to reach $207 billion at a 10% Y-o-Y growth.
Categories That Did Well on Cyber Monday
So, which categories performed well on Cyber Monday? According to Adobe Analytics, the top categories that drove sales on Cyber Monday were toys (11x increase compared to pre-season in September 2021), gift cards and books (7x increase each), video games (up by 6x), and appliances (5.6x increase overall). Specifically, in the appliances category, microwave ovens and kitchen appliances topped the list. Besides these, electronics, such as AirPods, Apple Pencils, Apple Watches, Nintendo Switch and Switch Lite, laptops, TVs, Xbox Series S, and Oculus Quest 2 did well in sales.
Other Interesting Shopping Trends
- Shopping carts became larger: The report showed that many consumers saw a 13.9% jump in the final price point of their shopping carts on Cyber Monday. Since discounts continued for most items, it could mean that some shoppers may be buying bigger ticket items such as furniture or are feeling online inflation effects.
- Discounts weakened on Cyber Monday: It was also seen that discounts levels for electronics, TVs, apparel, sporting goods, and appliances were low. Adobe also expects that as shipping costs begin to rise, discounts may start fading further.
- Out-of-stock messages persisted: Despite sales being slightly low compared to last year, out-of-stock messages were up 8% compared to the week earlier.
- BNPL saw an uptick: The trend of buy now pay later (BNPL) services saw an upswing on Cyber Monday, with sales up 21% Y-o-Y and orders up 1% Y-o-Y.
- Mobile shopping was limited: Another interesting insight was that mobile devices accounted for only 42.2% of the total spending ($46 billion) during the entire season, while desktops accounted for the remaining 57.8% ($63 billion) of the total spending.
- Curbside pickup remained popular: It was also seen that the trend of curbside pickup, which picked up steam during the pandemic, remained popular (though 18% on Cyber Monday compared to 20% last year).
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Why These Insights Are Important
The 2021 holiday shopping season is just halfway through. With Christmas and New Year less than a month away, retailers and ecommerce portals can expect much shopping to happen till the year-end. Data and insights from the Adobe Analytics report and other similar reports help key decision-makers stay updated about consumer behaviors, expectations, and the latest shopping trends. Further, they can gain insights into what shoppers are spending their money on. Accordingly, retailers, ecommerce portals, and marketing professionals can optimize their strategies to attract consumers and provide them with the best shopping experience this holiday season.
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