Cyber Monday in Danger of Loosing its Crown to Black Friday

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Black Friday’s blockbuster online sales don’t appear to have come at Cyber Monday’s expense.

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As of 10 a.m. Eastern, retail websites had raked in $540 million on the reigning champion of digital shopping days. That level of spending puts Cyber Monday on pace to reach a record $3.36 billion, on growth of 9.4 percent, according to Adobe Digital Insights.

The firm’s update comes fresh off the heels of a larger-than-expected lift in Black Friday online revenue, which some had worried might eat into Cyber Monday’s sales. Digital revenue on Black Friday rose 21.6 percent to $3.34 billion, easily topping Adobe’s forecast for $3.05 billion.

“Cyber Monday is on track to hit our prediction of $3.36 billion and could retain its position as the top online shopping day of the season, but only if retailers continue to push as good of deals today as they have over the holiday weekend,” Becky Tasker, managing analyst for Adobe Digital Insights, said in a statement.

Even though the majority of retail sales still occur in stores, Black Friday’s record-breaking digital performance stole the show over the four-day shopping extravaganza. Whereas Mastercard SpendingPulse data estimates online sales grew in the double digits over the weekend, in-store sales increased in the high-single digits, the payments network said.

Separate data from the National Retail Federation pointed to an even more dramatic shift. Findings from the trade group’s consumer survey said 108.5 million people shopped Black Friday deals online over the weekend, whereas 99 million did so in stores.

That means 3 million fewer people visited stores than the same weekend last year, while 5.5 million more said they shopped online. That shift is partly due to bricks-and-mortar retailers like Wal-Mart and Kohl’s offering their in-store deals online, and partly due to the rise of Amazon.

Still, a reported 1 percent drop in store traffic on Thanksgiving and Black Friday marked a big improvement over 2015, and came in better than many had expected.

“The traffic in stores has been great but online is really taking off,” NRF CEO Matthew Shay told reporters on Sunday.

Black Friday’s online spending lift helped make up for the shortfall on Thanksgiving Day, when revenue increased 11.5 percent to hit $1.93 billion. That compares with Adobe’s expectation for $2 billion.

NRF expects 122 million Americans shop online for Cyber Monday deals, up from last year’s 121 million.