UPDATED 21:36 EST / DECEMBER 01 2015

NEWS

Cyber Monday sales hit record high of $2.98b, up 12% in 2015

A report from Adobe Systems, Inc. has found that 2015 saw a new record high for sales on Cyber Monday, America’s annual online sales event.

According to the report, which was based on the analysis of aggregated and anonymous data of more than 125 million visits to 4,500 retail websites on Cyber Monday, a record $2.98 billion was spent online by the end of the day, up 12 percent for the same day in 2014, with the total Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday shopping period driving a total of $11 billion sales this year, up 15 percent year-on-year and 30 percent of all online sales in November.

If you tried to purchase anything on Cyber Monday but found it was out of stock, you were not alone, with the report finding out-of-stock rates hitting an all-time high, with 13 out of 100 products checked resulting in an out-of-stock level, two times the usual rate.

Star Wars led the pack when it came to hard-to-get items, with Star Wars figures, video game bundles and Star Wars LEGO leading the out-of-stock list, followed by the Xbox One, Fallout 4 and Halo Bundles.

The best-selling electronics on Cyber Monday are said to have included the Samsung 4K TV, Microsoft Xbox, Apple iPad Mini, Apple iPad Air 2 and Sony PS4.

“Cyber Monday has pushed online spending to a new high and is on track to hit a record $3 billion in sales, in line with our forecast,” Adobe Digital Index Principal Analyst Tamara Gaffney said in a statement. “Online traffic was so astronomical that several retailers experienced temporary outages and slow checkouts, but that didn’t stall consumer spending. Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago and Los Angeles were the largest metropolitan areas with the highest online sales growth between Thanksgiving and Sunday.”

Other interesting figures from the report included:

  • The average order value was $133, slightly lower than Black Friday ($137) and Thanksgiving Day ($162), indicating that shoppers were buying less-expensive items.
  • The largest metropolitan areas with the highest online sales growth between Thanksgiving and Sunday were Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago and Los Angeles.
  • Smartphones and tablets accounted for 49 percent of shopping visits (38 percent smartphones, 11 percent tablets), resulting in 28 percent of online sales (17 percent smartphones and 11 percent tablets).
  • Over $514 million in sales were attributed to mobile, including $313 million from smartphones ($205 million iPhones and $107 million Android) and $201 million from tablets ($170 million iPad and $28 million Android).

The report concluded with a note that Cyber Monday beat Black Friday in terms of social media sentiment, with 56 percent of people posting positive things versus 40 percent for Black Friday, although given the annual orgy, riots and even injuries resulting from Black Friday shopping, those numbers are not exactly surprising.

Image credit: vanderelbe/Flickr/CC by 2.0

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