CYBER MONDAY STILL KING
BUT COOLING
Consumers are expected to spend between
$10.2 billion and $11.3 billion on Monday,
making it once again the biggest online
shopping day of the year, according to Adobe.
Still, spending on Cyber Monday could
drop from last year’s level of $10.8 billion as
Americans are spreading out their purchases
more in response to discounting in October by
retailers, according to Adobe.
Both Black Friday and Thanksgiving Day online
shopping came in below Adobe’s prediction. On
Black Friday, online sales reached $8.9 billion,
down from the $9 billion in 2020, the second
largest day of the year. On Thanksgiving Day,
online sales reached $5.1 billion, even from the
year-ago period.
Harley Finkelstein, president of Canadian
e-commerce platform Shopify, which has 1.7
million independent brands on its site, says
so far Cyber Monday is off to a strong start.
Sales on his platform were up 21% on Black
Friday compared with 2020 and more than
double compared with 2019. He believes that
independent brands will see better percentage
sales gains online than big national chains
as shoppers gravitate more toward direct-to-
consumer labels and look for brands with social
conscience. And he says these brands have been
able to get the inventory. Among some of the
hot items on Shopify are children’s couches from
Nugget and luxurious linens from Brooklinen.
“I think it is a tale of two different worlds,”
he added.