NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 After four days of deal-fueled spending sprees that kicked off on Thanksgiving, shoppers shifted their focus on Cyber Monday, which is again expected to be the biggest sales day of the year for online retailers.<\/p>\n
Walmart was promoting up to 50% off on fashion on its website among some of the deals, while online juggernaut Amazon was hoping to ply customers with discounts of up to 55%.<\/p>\n
It’s no secret that buying things online is now a staple of many people’s everyday routines. And year after year, those purchases mount during the gift-giving holiday rush<\/a>. Experts expect consumers to drive record Cyber Monday spending this year, despite wider economic uncertainty<\/a>.<\/p>\n Adobe Analytics estimates that U.S. shoppers will spend $14.2 billion online Monday, or 6.3% more than in 2024<\/a>. Spending is expected to peak between the hours of 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. local time, when Adobe expects $16 million to pass through online shopping carts every minute nationwide.<\/p>\n U.S. consumers already spent $11.8 billion online for Black Friday<\/a>, $6.4 billion on Thanksgiving Day and another $11.8 billion over the weekend \u2014 exceeding Adobe’s forecasts. Purchases made across Cyber Week \u2014 the five major shopping days between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday \u2014 provides a strong indication of how much shoppers are willing to spend for the holidays<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cCyber Week is off to a strong start,” Vivek Pandya, lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights, said. \u201cDiscounts are set to remain elevated through Cyber Monday, which we expect will remain the biggest online shopping day of the season and year.\u201d<\/p>\n Pandya said he will be analyzing Adobe data capturing Cyber Monday sales to see if some of the spending momentum dissipated after a strong weekend.<\/p>\n Deals on electronics and apparel are expected to peak Monday at 30% and 26% off average listed prices, per Adobe’s latest estimates. But other categories will still continue to see deep discounts \u2014 including toys, which Adobe expects to reach 27% off listed prices.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, software company Salesforce \u2014 which tracks digital spending from a range of retailers, including grocers \u2014 estimates Cyber Monday’s online sales will total $13.4 billion in the U.S. and $53.7 billion globally.<\/p>\n While the amount of money going into online shopping carts is expected to reach new heights Monday, rising retail prices also may contribute to any record sales figures that materialize. Consumers may be buying fewer total items. Experts say tighter budgets are causing many to shop with more precision than in years past \u2014 such as focusing on a few \u201cbig ticket\u201d purchases, for example, and spreading out what they buy over days of promotions in hopes of getting the most bang for their buck.<\/p>\n Story Continues <\/p>\n Businesses and households have watched anxiously for financial impacts from U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs<\/a> on foreign imports. Workers in both the public and private sectors are also struggling with anxieties over job security amid both corporate layoffs<\/a> and the aftereffects of the 43-day government shutdown<\/a>.<\/p>\n For the November-December holiday season overall, the National Retail Federation estimates that U.S. shoppers will spend more than $1 trillion<\/a> for the first time this year. But the rate of growth is slowing \u2014 with an anticipated increase of 3.7% to 4.2% year over year, compared with 4.3% during last year’s holiday season.<\/p>\n At the same time, credit card debt and delinquencies on other short-term loans<\/a> have been rising. More and more shoppers are turning to \u201cbuy now, pay later\u201d plans<\/a>, which allow them to delay payments on holiday decor, gifts and other items.<\/p>\n Buy now, pay later loans are expected to drive $20.2 billion in online spending this holiday season, according to Adobe, up 11% from last year. The firm predicted that buy now, pay later loans would pass a new $1 billion milestone on Cyber Monday, the vast majority involving purchases made on mobile devices.<\/p>\n Overall, mobile devices have become the dominant shopping platform consumers are turning to for the holidays. Adobe expects smartphones, wearable tech and other handheld electronics to account for 58% of online spending this season.<\/p>\n Five years ago, a majority of online purchases were made on desktops.<\/p>\n Shopping services powered by artificial intelligence<\/a> are also expected to play a role in what consumers choose to buy. For Black Friday, Salesforce estimated that AI assistants and digital agents contributed to $14.2 billion of the total $79 billion it said was spent online worldwide.<\/p>\n Across the holiday season, \u201chot sellers\u201d will include gaming consoles such as the Nintendo Switch 2<\/a> and toys-turned-fashion statements like Labubu Dolls<\/a>, Adobe said. The analytics company anticipates the newest editions of popular consumer electronics \u2014 including the iPhone 17<\/a>, Google Pixel 10<\/a> and Samsung Galaxy S25<\/a> \u2014 will also see high demand.<\/p>\n To many, Cyber Monday is billed as the \u201clast call\u201d to take advantage of the deepest discounts in the days following Thanksgiving. But its reach has grown over the years.<\/p>\n Cyber Monday is two decades old now, dating back to when the National Retail Federation first coined the term in 2005. Today, sales continue to bubble up throughout the week \u2014 riding on the hype that the industry has built to fuel consumer spending.<\/p>\n _<\/p>\n AP Retail Writer Anne D’Innocenzio in New York contributed to this report.<\/p>\n Wyatte Grantham-philips, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 After four days of deal-fueled spending sprees that kicked off on Thanksgiving, shoppers shifted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,150721,101,82732,165675,7051],"class_list":{"0":"post-324730","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-cyber-monday","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-holiday-season","12":"tag-online-retailers","13":"tag-thanksgiving"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}