The early predictions for Cyber Monday were off the charts. Now the official numbers are in, and they confirm that this year’s Cyber Monday sales blew past last year’s record.
The data also show some clear trends and surprise winners. While it’s taken a slight dip, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) remains just short of record highs it set on Monday, reflecting the fact that Amazon was one of the companies that did very, very well.
Here are some of the other trends and winners that became clear after Adobe Insights published its official 2017 Cyber Monday sales data report.
Cyber Monday Is the Biggest Online Shopping Day (in U.S.)
As predicted, Adobe says the final tally for online shopping in the U.S. hit $6.59 billion on Cyber Monday. That is a new record, and a 16.8% increase over last year’s numbers.
The long weekend tally also confirms Cyber Monday sales make it the biggest online shopping day in the U.S., eclipsing both Black Friday ($5.03 billion) and Thanksgiving ($2.37 billion).
Mobile Is Increasingly Important
Cyber Monday showed just how important smartphones and tablets have become for web access. According to Adobe Insights’ numbers, mobile traffic accounted for 47.4% of online retailer site visits. Cyber Monday sales revenue from smartphones alone was pegged at $1.59 billion, 39.2% higher than last year. Millennials are helping drive this trend, with an estimated 75% doing their shopping via smartphone.
Search Ads Still Pay Off
The Adobe Insights data reveal that advertising still pays off for online retailers. And search is still a big thing: 41.7% of Cyber Monday sales began with a search, with paid search results accounting for 22.9% of online shopping sales for the day, up 8.3% compared to 2016. These results should make Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) — which still makes the vast majority of its revenue from ad sales — very happy.
Amazon’s Alexa Gains Will Make Apple HomePod Delay Hurt
A few weeks ago, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) announced it was delaying the release of its new Siri-powered HomePod smart speaker from Dec. 1 to 2018. That gave Amazon an entire additional holiday shopping season to build up its smart speaker lead. Amazon put out a press release yesterday that helped propel AMZN stock to that new record high.
Among the details announced were “millions of Alexa devices sold” with the Echo Dot (and Fire TV Stick) being the top-selling products across the entire site. In addition, the video screen and camera-equipped Echo Spot smart speaker sold out after Cyber Monday sales.
In other words, Apple’s job to get the HomePod smart speaker into homes just got a lot more difficult.
On the plus side for Apple, though, Adobe Insights listed its AirPods wireless earbuds as one of the top-selling devices on Cyber Monday. Apple iPhones also notched a higher average transaction value than smartphones running Android: $123 to $110.
Nintendo Should Have a Happy Holiday
Game consoles, in general, did well in Cyber Monday sales, but Nintendo Co., Ltd (ADR) (OTCMKTS:NTDOY) should be especially happy.
Despite the fact that Nintendo Switch discounts were virtually nonexistent — most retailers’ promotions centered around having the Switch in stock — the Switch was spiked out as a Cyber Monday top-seller.
Overall, the three key days of the Thanksgiving holiday online sales shattered records with double-digit growth. While Cyber Monday sales stand out as the largest online total for a single day in the U.S., Adobe Insights says the holiday shopping season to date has generated $50 billion in online revenue (up 16.8% compared to 2016).
The firm predicts that by the time the 2017 holiday shopping season wraps up, consumers will have spent over $100 billion with online retailers. More good news for Jeff Bezos & Co.
As of this writing, Brad Moon did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
