Cyber Monday sales in 2019 are reaching new records, as the ease of shopping on the internet beats hopping in the car to head to the mall.
Shoppers are expected to ring up a whopping and record $9.2 billion online on Monday, up 16.9% from a year ago, with people spending an estimated $11 million every minute from 11 pm E.T. to midnight, according to Adobe Analytics, which tracks the web transactions of 80 of the top 100 internet retailers in the U.S.
Monday is also expected to become the first day in history where consumers spend over $3 billion, in a 24-hour window, via their smartphones.
As of Monday morning, Adobe was calling for Cyber Monday online sales to hit $9.4 billion, climbing 18.9% from 2018. Estimates later in the day were slightly below that number. Last year, Cyber Monday sales hit a fresh $7.9 billion.
Top sellers online on Monday included “Frozen 2” Toys, LOL Surprise Dolls, NERF products, the Nintendo Switch, Samsung TVs, Airpods and air fryers, Adobe said.
Online deals, coupled with the fact that promotions are moving earlier in the season, have lessened Black Friday’s clout. Many analysts and onlookers said traffic was lighter at malls and stores this year. Black Friday sales for bricks-and-mortar shops dropped 6.2%, after shopping on Thanksgiving Day rose 2.3%, according to ShopperTrak data released this past weekend.
Meanwhile, shopping online on Black Friday hit a record of $5.4 billion, up 22.3% from a year ago, Adobe said. Spending on the web on Thanksgiving Day surpassed $4 billion for the first time ever.
“Black Friday has lost at least some relevance as a barometer of the health of consumer spending,” Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Brian Nagel said. “Our simple analysis of data suggest clearly that overall trends in consumer spending remain healthy and that those chains with the best, most compelling online offerings are best positioned to capitalize upon this solid underlying dynamic.”
For the holiday season so far, or from Nov. 1 through Dec. 1, $72.1 billion has been spent online, Adobe said. Online sales for the entire holiday season are forecast by the firm to hit $143.7 billion.
Some nasty weather across parts of the U.S. also helped fuel a spike in online retail purchases over the weekend. On Black Friday, Adobe said states that saw over 2 inches of snow recorded an increase of 7% in online sales.