Hard to believe, but Thanksgiving weekend has come and gone. The big Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals are over for another year. While the 2018 shopping extravaganza was a bit down, one thing is certain, consumers are shopping both online and offline during the sales.
From Thanksgiving Day to Cyber Monday nearly half of all shoppers purchased items both in the store and online. These multi-channel shoppers grew 40% this year, according to retail trade groups.
Shoppers also spent $93 more on average than those who shopped only in stores or only online.
Consumers are becoming more comfortable navigating both online and in-store shopping options. Taylor Schreiner, director of Adobe Digital Insights, said “what is clear is that this line between online and offline is really blurring,”
Total Consumers
More than 165 million people shopped over the 5-day Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday span. This number is down 10 million from 2017. However, the National Retail Federation is estimating that holiday sales will be up 4.8% over the total holiday shopping season compared to last year.
Super Saturday, or the final Saturday before Christmas, is expected to be the big push.
Total Spend
Shoppers spent $6.22 billion online on Black Friday (a record) and $7.9 billion on Cyber Monday, up about 20% from last year. (Adobe Analytics)
The average shopper spent $313.29 on gifts and holiday items. The biggest spenders were older millennials and Generation X, clocking in at an average of $413.05 spent.
Amazon announced that Cyber Monday 2018 was its single busiest shopping day in the company’s history. Shoppers ordered more than 18 million toys and 13 million fashion items on Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.
Mobile shoppers spent a record 2.1 billion in sales on Black Friday.
Fun Facts
- Thanksgiving Day is now the fasting-growing online shopping day, with a 28% increase over 2017 results, according to Adobe.
- Cyber Monday American shoppers spent a combined 95 million hours, or 11,000 years, shopping online this past Monday.
- 2018 is the final year until 2022 that will see a fourth Saturday in December to shop before Christmas Eve.
What it Means for Business
Businesses with online stores, offline stores, or both need to step up their online game. Featuring sales promotions online via Social Media, newsletters, blogs, etc. is still a great way to get traffic to your website or into your store. However, providing shopping options online could mean higher sales. At the very least businesses should be integrating online information and promotions for mobile shoppers while they are out in other stores.