The turkey and stuffing might all be gone by now, but the online deals generated over the Thanksgiving holiday are still being served.
The data is in, with reports announcing that more consumers took to doing their shopping online this Thanksgiving season than ever before.
Cyber Monday had its strongest showing in history, with consumers spending $3.45 billion online. That’s 12 percent more than Cyber Monday turned out in 2015. And according to Adobe Digital Insights, Black Friday had a strong showing as well. It trailed behind Cyber Monday by $110 million in online sales. Over $1 billion of that was spent shopping on smartphones and tablets, marking a 34 percent increase than last year and following the upward trend we have been seeing in mobile device use.
The National Retail Federation also released statistics that found more people shopped online between Thanksgiving Day and Sunday than at an actual retail store. More than 43 percent used their smartphone, tablet or computer to browse items and make purchases.
As more people choose to avoid the crowds and do their holiday shopping online at their own pace, whenever and wherever is convenient for them, retail stores have responded in turn. No longer are Black Friday and Cyber Monday the only days to get those killer discounts. Retailers now offer their discounts days earlier, and extend their digital deals often several days or weeks beyond the Thanksgiving holiday.
This is an interesting pattern we are seeing that’s going hand-in-hand with technology advancement and the enhanced digital connectivity and internet speeds many of us now enjoy. It’s inevitable that we will continue to see online behavior and mobile device use continue to spike as consumers look to more efficient ways to complete the routine tasks in their everyday lives.