Thanksgiving is becoming the new Cyber Monday

Cyber Monday was also a record-breaking email event for IBM, as its customers sent almost 500 million email notifications from its platform to consumers around the world.

With the increased convergence of physical shopfronts and online stores, Australian retailers managed to boost sales significantly over the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend. Online sales tracked by Adobe Digital Index were $5.27 billion for both days, an 18 percent increase from a year earlier. Meanwhile, there was 37% year-over-year (YOY) revenue growth of 37% on “Thanksgiving Eve”, according to Rakuten Marketing. Adobe’s forecast puts Cyber Monday neck-and-neck with Black Friday, when consumers spent $3.34 billion, a 21.6 percent jump from past year. LEGO blocks, Barbie dolls, and Nerf dart guns were hot sellers in toys yesterday.

PlayStation 4 got the most social buzz of any item yesterday, and it was also one of the top selling electronics products along with its gaming competitor, Microsoft’s Xbox. On Cyber Monday, mobile sales from tablets and smartphones accounted for 47 percent of online traffic and 31 percent of online sales, Adobe said. Online shopping over the weekend was carried out by 108 million, while 99 million people went to stores. While Walmart still offers Black Friday specials at its supercentres, the day marks the beginning of a streak of online promotions called “Cyber Week”.

Sales and traffic at US brick-and-mortar stores on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday declined from past year, as at least 10 million more customers shopped online instead of in stores. For his thoughts on the trend, we’re joined by Scott Silverman, who helped create the term “Cyber Monday”.

Of course, that remains to be seen.

“Millennials are keeping retailers on their toes when it comes to Thanksgiving weekend shopping not just for their friends and family, but also themselves”, says Prosper’s principal analyst Pam Goodfellow. It notes that Apple, Dell, Best Buy, and Target are offering free shipping with no minimum order size, which could spur sales. Owing to the onslaught from online sales, brick-and-mortar stores found themselves on the receiving end.