Cyber Monday 2019 fell on the 2nd of December, the first Monday after Black Friday and Thanksgiving. It  saw online shoppers in the US splurging with abandon and retailers generated a whopping $9.4 billion revenue, according to data from Adobe Analytics. This was a boost of nearly 19%  from the $7.9 billion generated in the country from sales during Cyber Monday 2018.

Cyber Monday surpasses Black Friday, once again

Needless to say, Cyber Monday overtook Black Friday by a landslide when it came to sales and revenue this year, and became the single largest online sale till date in the US. Sales in the UK were healthy too, touching £720 million.

A dull response in the UK

While American customers are largely favourable towards Cyber Monday, their UK counterparts seem to be getting more and more sceptical about the sale as the years pass. According to a survey conducted by PwC, 49% of UK respondents claimed that they did not want to participate in the sale. 29% of the respondents felt that the deals were not exciting enough and 20% believed the deals were not genuine. These statistics indicate that Cyber Monday has lost its novelty in the UK, but there is still a large fraction of potential customers in the country who are willing to shell out money for the right deal. In fact, interested customers were willing to spend £224 on average this year, as compared to the £202 that they spent on average in 2018.

The 'Golden Hour' of retail

Almost a third of this year’s revenue was generated by late night shoppers, who spent an average of $11 million a minute between 11 PM and midnight (dubbed the “golden hours of retail”). AI-based product recommendations reportedly lifted orders by 9% and items per order by 12% in Cyber Week.  The statistics matched the holiday predictions released by Adobe prior to the holiday season.

Among those who did shop on Cyber Monday, 25-35-year-olds along with those aged 60+ accounted for the largest proportion of shoppers. With regard to gender and ethnicity, surprisingly, only 44% of all shoppers on Cyber Monday were females. Asians accounted for nearly 42% of shoppers, while African-Americans, Hispanics and Caucasians came in at around 20% each.

Top selling products

Most popular items in the American customers’ Amazon shopping carts were the Echo Dot, the Fire TV stick, L.O.L Surprise! Dolls, Frozen 2 toys, Apple Laptops, . According to PwC statistics, 53% of the customers in the UK were interested in buying electrical items and gadgets, and a smaller fraction (29%) was focused on clothing and accessories.

According to The Telegraph, the best Cyber Monday deals were offered by retailers like Amazon (3rd gen Echo Dot, Echo Show 8, Sennheiser HD 599 Special Edition headphones, Kindle Oasis), Currys PC World (Google Nest Mini, Breville One-Touch VCF108 Coffee Machine), Apple (Airpods, iPads, Apple watches), and John Lewis.  

Big shift to mobile shopping

Consumers in both countries are increasingly opting for online purchases, and they have also become smarter shoppers, with around 51% of UK customers preferring to do their pre-sale online research before buying products. In the US, the shift to mobile device shopping has  been so large that sales on mobile devices grew a whopping 46% from Cyber Monday 2018, with around $3 billion, or 33% of sales coming in through that avenue. Weather patterns in winter also had an unsurprising effect of the proportion of online shoppers—states that received more than 2 inches of snow recorded 7% greater online sales.

Amazon's best Cyber Monday yet

Amazon have announced that Cyber Monday 2019 has been their biggest till date, with an increase of 18% in sales and  25% in profits over Cyber Monday 2018. They also sold 38% more goods on Cyber Monday than they did on Black Friday and 180% more than they did on thanksgiving day. Cyber Monday 2019 was the largest day in terms of sales for Amazon Fashion till date. Top selling categories on Amazon included toys, fashion and health, home and personal care, with consumers buying nearly four million more beauty products than they did on Cyber Monday 2018.

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