Cyber Monday 2019 did not disappoint as U.S. consumers spent $9.4 billion online, obliterating the previous record of $7.9 billion set on the same day in 2018. That’s year-over-year growth of 19.7%, which is also higher than the growth rate last year, according to data provider Adobe Analytics.
Customer relationship management software provider Salesforce pegged the total slightly lower—$8 billion—for a growth rate of 15% in the U.S. Worldwide, consumers spent $30 billion, according to Salesforce.
During the so-called Golden Hours of Retail from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. ET, Adobe said shoppers spent $2.9 billion, which marks a growth rate of 24% over 2018, with a peak purchase rate of $12 million per minute from 11 p.m. to midnight ET.
“These final hours of Cyber Week discounts became even more crucial for retailers this year, as consumers hit Order on those time-sensitive deals, capturing 31% of the day’s revenue in just four hours,” Adobe said.
In addition, Adobe found customers bought more items—and higher-ticket ones—on Cyber Monday than in previous years. On average, consumers’ shopping carts were 6% bigger at checkout on Cyber Monday 2019 than they were in 2018.
Consumers indeed found the best discounts on Cyber Monday, as Salesforce said the average discount rate started at 23% on Nov. 25 and grew steadily through the week to end at 30% on Monday.
Cyber Monday offered the best deals on computers (18%), TVs (19%) and toys (17%), Adobe said.
Shoppers gravitated toward familiar products on Cyber Monday; best sellers included Frozen 2 toys, L.O.L. Surprise! dolls, Madden 20, Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order video game, Nintendo Switch, VR devices, Samsung TVs and Apple laptops.
Continuing a theme we saw on other marquee dates this season, mobile transactions were the hot ticket with $3.1 billion in online sales coming from smartphones on Cyber Monday, which Adobe said is the highest year-over-year growth for devices.
Globally, mobile orders reached 55%, Salesforce said. And social buying through mobile grew 41% from 2018.
Digital marketing agency PMG agreed that social commerce was big, accounting for almost 30% of revenue this year, which it said was the most notable change from 2018.
Another familiar theme: buy online pickup in store (BOPIS), which grew nearly 41% year over year, Adobe said.
In addition, Adobe found consumers are 20% more likely to convert with retailers who offer BOPIS.
“This was especially true on the big days, with Cyber Monday conversion at BOPIS retailers outperforming non-BOPIS retailers by 45%,” Adobe said. “Black Friday BOPIS retailer conversion outperformed non-BOPIS by a whopping 64%.”
Salesforce said ecommerce sites offering in-store order pickup will see big gains late in the season, as shoppers scramble to complete their last-minute holiday purchases.
“Retailers offering this capability on their ecommerce sites will see 48% more active digital shoppers and collect 28% more digital revenue share in the last five days leading up to Christmas,” Salesforce said.
According to PMG, website conversion rates hit double digits on Cyber Monday, which is up from a typical retailer conversion rate of around 3%. And as overall visits to ecommerce sites increased, PMG saw up to 45% of retailers seeing traffic from new customers.
That being said, as page load speeds spiked from traffic volume and customers saw shipping delays because of order demand, some had a poor user experience—and those retailers saw conversion rates drop.
