Cyber Monday Breaks Records as AI Boosts Online Shopping Experience

Black Friday weekend sees record ecommerce sales once again

Generative AI is starting to play a bigger role in purchasing decisions American consumers pushed Cyber Monday spend to $13.3 billion this year, making it the biggest Cyber Monday in history and even surpassing initial predictions by $100 million. Up 7.3% year-over-year, Cyber Monday has now become the largest online shopping day of the year, building on the hype of the preceding Black Friday deals. In two hours alone between 8pm and 10pm, US buyers spent a whopping $15.8 million every minute, or about $1.9 billion in 120 minutes. Adobe's analysis found that the five-day Cyber Week - beginning on Thanksgiving and ending on Cyber Monday - brought in $41.1 billion in sales, up 8.2% year-on-year. Current predictions estimate that the two-month holiday season, from November 1 to December 31, will bring in $240.8 billion in sales. If this is true, it would mark an 8.4% yearly rise, but already this season sales stand at $131.5 billion, up 9.0%. Continually tough economic conditions have kept some consumers thinking twice about their spending, however generous discounts countered this and kept up spending. Electronics saw an average markdown of 30.1%, toys at 26.1%, and clothing at 23.2%. Surprisingly, while the true power of artificial intelligence is yet to be realized outside of the office, GenAI-powered chatbots helped consumers make purchasing decisions more than ever this year, boosting traffic to retail sites by a staggering 1,950%. Social media influencers also saw their share of revenue increase 6.8% year-over-year. Most consumers (57%) purchased via mobile, with Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services accounting for $991.2 million in transactions - about 7.5% of Cyber Monday's purchases from a financial perspective. Adobe Digital Insights lead analyst Vivek Pandya commented: "Early discounts were strong enough that many consumers felt comfortable hitting the buy button earlier on during Cyber Week, with Cyber Monday becoming 'last call' for shoppers to take advantage of big holiday deals." Looking ahead, Adobe predicts discounts to become less attractive through December, but key categories like electronics, toys and appliances are still likely to offer healthy savings, enabling buyers to purchase higher ticket items and driving total spend up.

US retailers aim to cash in on Cyber Monday with steep online discounts

(Reuters) - After lackluster spending at U.S. stores on a deals-heavy Black Friday, retailers will be pulling out all the stops with steep promotions on their websites and apps to entice people to buy holiday gifts and other merchandise after the long Thanksgiving weekend. Retailers have been coaxing cautious U.S. shoppers on Cyber Monday with push notifications, emails and other ads touting heavily discounted cosmetics, electronics, toys, clothing and other products. Many including Walmart and Amazon use AI-enabled chatbots on their websites and apps to help customers with queries and drive them to hit '"buy." With just 23 days before Christmas, the discounts this year have been deeper with shoppers waiting for promotion heavy days, experts have said. For instance on Cyber Monday, traditionally America's biggest internet shopping day, Target said it was offering 50% off thousands of items including video games, home decor and other tech with a "two-day Cyber Monday" sale that started on Dec. 1. The promotions follow a mixed holiday season so far with muted spending in stores on key shopping days such as Black Friday. Sales at brick-and-mortar stores on Black Friday grew just 0.7% year-over-year, according to preliminary estimates by payments processor Mastercard, and were lower according to data firm Facteus. "(Consumers are) more strategic in their shopping, though, prioritizing promotions that they believe hold the greatest value -- opening their wallets but with more intentional distribution," said Michelle Meyer, chief economist at the Mastercard Economics Institute. Spending online on Monday in the U.S. is expected to reach $13.2 billion, 6% more than on Cyber Monday a year earlier, according to preliminary estimates from Adobe Inc. That outlay would follow the roughly $10.8 billion Americans spent online on Black Friday, according to Adobe. With many Americans recently carrying more debt, shoppers are also expected to spend a record $18.5 billion using third-party 'buy now, pay later' services for holiday purchases in the last quarter of the year, according to projections by Adobe, which keeps track of devices that use its software to help power more than 1 trillion visits to U.S. retail sites. This year, big retailers like Walmart and Amazon have also relied on generative AI customer service and search features to make it easier for shoppers to find products on websites and mobile apps. Caila Schwartz, director of consumer insights at Salesforce, a cloud-computing company that tracks global shopping data from more than 1.5 billion consumers, said that GenAI tools such as chatbots to answer online shoppers' basic questions, such as queries about products, helped retailers protect their profit margins despite rising costs. Across the first half of Cyber Week - the week starting ahead of Thanksgiving and ending on Cyber Monday - those retailers that used GenAI tools for customer service saw a 9% higher purchase rate by users, according to estimates by Salesforce. Schwartz said the higher so-called conversion rate "is a game-changer." (Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

US Retailers Aim to Cash in on Cyber Monday With Steep Online Discounts

(Reuters) - After lackluster spending at U.S. stores on a deals-heavy Black Friday, retailers will be pulling out all the stops with steep promotions on their websites and apps to entice people to buy holiday gifts and other merchandise after the long Thanksgiving weekend. Retailers have been coaxing cautious U.S. shoppers on Cyber Monday with push notifications, emails and other ads touting heavily discounted cosmetics, electronics, toys, clothing and other products. Many including Walmart and Amazon use AI-enabled chatbots on their websites and apps to help customers with queries and drive them to hit '"buy." With just 23 days before Christmas, the discounts this year have been deeper with shoppers waiting for promotion heavy days, experts have said. For instance on Cyber Monday, traditionally America's biggest internet shopping day, Target said it was offering 50% off thousands of items including video games, home decor and other tech with a "two-day Cyber Monday" sale that started on Dec. 1. The promotions follow a mixed holiday season so far with muted spending in stores on key shopping days such as Black Friday. Sales at brick-and-mortar stores on Black Friday grew just 0.7% year-over-year, according to preliminary estimates by payments processor Mastercard, and were lower according to data firm Facteus. "(Consumers are) more strategic in their shopping, though, prioritizing promotions that they believe hold the greatest value -- opening their wallets but with more intentional distribution," said Michelle Meyer, chief economist at the Mastercard Economics Institute. Spending online on Monday in the U.S. is expected to reach $13.2 billion, 6% more than on Cyber Monday a year earlier, according to preliminary estimates from Adobe Inc. That outlay would follow the roughly $10.8 billion Americans spent online on Black Friday, according to Adobe. With many Americans recently carrying more debt, shoppers are also expected to spend a record $18.5 billion using third-party 'buy now, pay later' services for holiday purchases in the last quarter of the year, according to projections by Adobe, which keeps track of devices that use its software to help power more than 1 trillion visits to U.S. retail sites. This year, big retailers like Walmart and Amazon have also relied on generative AI customer service and search features to make it easier for shoppers to find products on websites and mobile apps. Caila Schwartz, director of consumer insights at Salesforce, a cloud-computing company that tracks global shopping data from more than 1.5 billion consumers, said that GenAI tools such as chatbots to answer online shoppers' basic questions, such as queries about products, helped retailers protect their profit margins despite rising costs. Across the first half of Cyber Week - the week starting ahead of Thanksgiving and ending on Cyber Monday - those retailers that used GenAI tools for customer service saw a 9% higher purchase rate by users, according to estimates by Salesforce. Schwartz said the higher so-called conversion rate "is a game-changer." (Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

US retailers aim to cash in on Cyber Monday with steep online discounts

Dec 2 (Reuters) - After lackluster spending at U.S. stores on a deals-heavy Black Friday, retailers will be pulling out all the stops with steep promotions on their websites and apps to entice people to buy holiday gifts and other merchandise after the long Thanksgiving weekend. Retailers have been coaxing cautious U.S. shoppers on Cyber Monday with push notifications, emails and other ads touting heavily discounted cosmetics, electronics, toys, clothing and other products. Many including Walmart and Amazon use AI-enabled chatbots on their websites and apps to help customers with queries and drive them to hit '"buy." With just 23 days before Christmas, the discounts this year have been deeper with shoppers waiting for promotion heavy days, experts have said. For instance on Cyber Monday, traditionally America's biggest internet shopping day, Target (TGT.N), opens new tab said it was offering 50% off thousands of items including video games, home decor and other tech with a "two-day Cyber Monday" sale that started on Dec. 1. The promotions follow a mixed holiday season so far with muted spending in stores on key shopping days such as Black Friday. Sales at brick-and-mortar stores on Black Friday grew just 0.7% year-over-year, according to preliminary estimates by payments processor Mastercard, and were lower according to data firm Facteus. "(Consumers are) more strategic in their shopping, though, prioritizing promotions that they believe hold the greatest value -- opening their wallets but with more intentional distribution," said Michelle Meyer, chief economist at the Mastercard Economics Institute. Spending online on Monday in the U.S. is expected to reach $13.2 billion, 6% more than on Cyber Monday a year earlier, according to preliminary estimates from Adobe Inc. That outlay would follow the roughly $10.8 billion Americans spent online on Black Friday, according to Adobe. With many Americans recently carrying more debt, shoppers are also expected to spend a record $18.5 billion using third-party 'buy now, pay later' services for holiday purchases in the last quarter of the year, according to projections by Adobe, which keeps track of devices that use its software to help power more than 1 trillion visits to U.S. retail sites. This year, big retailers like Walmart (WMT.N), opens new tab and Amazon (AMZN.O), opens new tab have also relied on generative AI customer service and search features to make it easier for shoppers to find products on websites and mobile apps. Caila Schwartz, director of consumer insights at Salesforce, a cloud-computing company that tracks global shopping data from more than 1.5 billion consumers, said that GenAI tools such as chatbots to answer online shoppers' basic questions, such as queries about products, helped retailers protect their profit margins despite rising costs. Across the first half of Cyber Week - the week starting ahead of Thanksgiving and ending on Cyber Monday - those retailers that used GenAI tools for customer service saw a 9% higher purchase rate by users, according to estimates by Salesforce. Schwartz said the higher so-called conversion rate "is a game-changer." Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru Editing by Nick Zieminski Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab Suggested Topics:Retail & ConsumerRetail & Consumer