Amazon Gains the Most on Record-High Cyber Monday Sales

The Virginia ABC set sales records on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

“It’s no longer about one day, but a season of digital deals”, said Matthew Shay, president of retail trade group The National Retail Federation.

“The big story is that consumers are getting increasingly comfortable purchasing online on Cyber Monday or any other day”, said Ken Cassar, Principal Analyst at Slice Intelligence.

Toys “R” Us, No. 40 in the Internet Retailer 2015 Top 500 Guide, will continue free shipping on online orders above $19 for the holiday shopping season-down from $49 before the holidays-and it will match prices on products against online and offline competitors. Now consumers may be shifting their expectations for extra-special price breaks to online retailers or online promotions from traditional retailers.

The name was also a nod to online shopping being done at work where faster connections made it easier to browse.

The Oceanside Post has reported that retail stores’ sales for Black Friday fell 10 percent to .4 billion this year, as opposed to $11.6 billion in 2014.

Cyber Monday was a very successful day but it was not without its glitches, even among its winners. The Kindle Fire HD 7 ($99.99, reg. price $154.99) and the Fire HDX 8.9 ($429.99, reg. price $479.99) are two other examples of Amazon devices you can get on the cheap as the retailer wraps up Cyber Monday several days after the fact.

“If you look at what retailers did prior to Thanksgiving, they offered a lot of “sneak peeks” as to what they were going to offer, and a lot of early engagement”, Dupré said.

Many retailers also expanded their Cyber Monday sales throughout the week, dubbing it “Cyber-Week”.

That will increasingly be key in a noisy, omni-channel, omni-day retail world, she says.

Research firm Comscore expects online sales to rise 14 percent to $70.06 billion during the November and December shopping period, slowing slightly from last year’s 15 percent rise. And 33.2 percent came from mobile devices, up from 27 percent past year.

The NRF characterized the weekend in similar fashion before Cyber Monday dawned, noting that its figures showed that in-store shopping was level with last year but that the bump in e-commerce would put total sales ahead of last year. “With online shopping the experience is more pleasant all around, but there is the stress of trying to snatch something up and checkout before it sells out”, said Kristin Cook, managing editor of Ben’s Bargains. She said she hoped to get most of her Christmas shopping done on Cyber Monday.

On that day, hundreds of customers ordered bottles of distilled spirits online for pick-up at an ABC store, and enjoyed the same discount as Black Friday.