Cyber Monday Sales Fall to $10.7B

Cyber Monday sales fell for the first time in at least a decade, dropping 1.4% from $10.8 billion last year to $10.7 billion this year, according to Adobe Analytics data released Tuesday (Nov. 30).

Adobe Analytics, which started reporting on eCommerce in 2012, says the Cyber Monday dip is the first drop in consumer spending on major shopping days since it began tracking such things. Still, Adobe expects the overall holiday season spending output will achieve eCommerce records this year with the purchases spread out across the season.

U.S. shoppers spent almost $110 billion from Nov. 1 through Cyber Monday, up 11.9% from the same time in 2020, according to Adobe. That total includes 22 days when shoppers spent more than $3 billion, another record-breaking feat.

Adobe is projecting digital sales of $207 billion from Nov. 1 through Dec. 31, a number that would be a record by about 10%.

Last year’s Cyber Monday sales were largely a function of people avoiding shopping in stores during the ongoing spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The $10.8 billion spent that day was a record for U.S. eCommerce purchases in a single day.

Black Friday sales were about $8.9 billion this year, down from the almost record $9 billion spent on the day after Thanksgiving in 2020, according to Adobe. U.S. shoppers spent about $5.1 billion this year on Thanksgiving, the same as their 2020 total.

Related: Cyber Monday Shoppers Find Fewer Online Deals

Shoppers haven’t found the traditional price-slashing of years gone by during this holiday season, with fewer and smaller discounts at most retailers. Many stores are also faced with limited selections because of the ongoing supply chain bottleneck that’s plaguing the entire world — and could for a while.

The emergence of the omicron variant of the coronavirus is also leading to uncertainty about the economic turnaround, but experts aren’t sure how it will affect consumer spending during the holiday season and beyond.