By Callum Keown and Sabrina Escobar
The holiday spending spree gathered pace over the weekend and Cyber Monday spending set a record as consumers turned to online shopping in their hunt for discounts.
U.S. shoppers spent $12.4 billion online on Monday, 9.6% above last year, according to Adobe Analytics, surpassing the company's initial projections. In the peak hour between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. Eastern consumers spent $15.7 million a minute.
Monday's splurge builds on the momentum of Black Friday and the weekend. Shoppers spent $10.3 billion online on Saturday and Sunday, a 7.7% increase from the previous year, according to Adobe data. Consumers spent $9.8 billion on Black Friday, a 7.5% jump from 2022 levels. In total, Cyber Week -- the five days from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday -- brought in $38 billion overall, up 7.8% year-over-year, Adobe said.
The trend of consumers using "buy now, pay later" options reached a record high, contributing $940 million to Monday's sales -- a 43% surge from last year, the company added. Adobe expects November to be the biggest month on record for the payment method.
Payments company Block said Tuesday that sellers using its Square and Afterpay platforms registered a record 70 million transactions over the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend, up 14% from the previous year. It reported a 19% increase in "buy now, pay later" purchases made through Afterpay.
The surge in online shopping helped offset some softness in bricks and mortar sales this weekend, said Matthew Katz, managing partner at SSA & Company, a global management consulting firm.
In-store sales increased just 1.1% compared with last year, according to Mastercard SpendingPulse. Meanwhile, foot traffic across 81 downtown locations fell 0.3% year-over-year last week, and was down 17.4% compared with 2019, according to data from MRI OnLocation.
"The feedback from the weekend has generally been mixed with online outperforming vs. store traffic being mixed to underwhelming," wrote Steven Zaccone, analyst at Citi.
Discounts also hit record levels in some categories including electronics, which peaked at 31% off listed prices, greater than the 25% peak in 2022, Adobe said. Lego, Nintendo's Switch console, Sony's PlayStation 5, headphones, and smartwatches were among the best-selling products.
It wasn't just electronics. Wedbush analyst Seth Basham notes that discounts were high across the retail landscape, and in some cases were higher for Cyber Monday than Black Friday. Walmart, for instance, stepped up apparel sales from 50% on Black Friday to 60% on Cyber Monday, he added.
Still, retail stocks were having a good day Tuesday following the data releases -- largely because investors are already bracing for a slower holiday season.
"Our Black Friday store checks confirm a potentially sluggish start to 4Q/holiday, though we suspect this is likely in-line with retailers/brands' cautious expectations," wrote a group of Morgan Stanley analysts Monday.
The SPDR S&P Retail ETF was up 0.9% in midmorning trading, while the Global X E-commerce ETF was gaining 1.4%. Shares in "buy now, pay later" provider Affirm soared 12% Monday and was ticking up 5.5% Tuesday. Block stock was 3.6% up.
Write to Callum Keown at callum.keown@dowjones.com, Callum Keown at callum.keown@barrons.com and Sabrina Escobar at sabrina.escobar@barrons.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 28, 2023 11:56 ET (16:56 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Comments