Cyber Monday sales up – but Black Friday still leads the way

However, Adobe principal analyst Tamara Gaffney noted that the great boost in online sales will not continue for long as retailers have already begun to sell discounted products earlier than Black Friday and even before Thanksgiving, according to CNET.

He said: “Retailers still have more opportunities to reach customers in the run up to Christmas, with Manic Monday on December 7 representing the time when consumers look to order gifts to ensure they receive them before Christmas, before the traditional Boxing Day sales begin”.

Cyber Monday did not go without a hitch, however. “And from our data, we saw greater retail sales generated prior to the Black Friday weekend, which is a result of retailers successfully elongating the holiday season”. “We’ll see a less dramatic spike on Cyber Monday”.

Cyber Monday, the online shopping spectacle, lived up to expectations with sales growing 12 percent year-over-year to a record $2.98 billion, according to Adobe Digital Index.

Amazon said this morning that its top-selling times were all Amazon-made products, like the Fire TV consoles and tablets.

As the final figures for Cyber Monday 2015 begin to come to light, two tech giants released their reports on what both called the biggest online shopping day of the year. Walmart also said that customers are making purchases on mobile at a higher rate than in the past. But Thanksgiving and Black Friday are gaining fast.

Target’s website posted an error message citing abnormally high traffic.

But some companies are also struggling to keep up with delivery demands, with one expert warning Cyber Monday orders will pile pressure on operators already battling to cope with the weekend’s orders. The company still maintains its forecast of a 2.4 percent increase in sales for in-store retailers this holiday season. According to ChannelAdvisor, e-commerce sales were up 43% year-over-year on Thanksgiving, 20% year-over-year on Black Friday, 17% year-over-year on Saturday, and 16% year-over-year on Sunday. “While Cyber Monday was still the biggest shopping day of the holiday period, consumers continued 2014’s trend of shopping more aggressively on Thanksgiving, which became the third-biggest shopping day of the Cyber Five weekend”.