Cyber Monday was on track to bring in a record 7.8 billion U.S. dollars in U.S. online sales, as millions of shoppers scoured for steep discounts on everything from Lego sets to big-screen TV sets.
The marketing event was expected to pick up steam Monday evening as West Coast shoppers nab deals after work and those on the East Coast make purchases before bedtime, according to Adobe Analytics, which measures transactions from 80 of the top 100 U.S. retailers.
“Many shoppers have waited on certain purchases, with three hours tonight expected to bring in as much revenue as an average full day,” said Taylor Schreiner, director of Adobe Digital Insights.
Target Corp and Amazon.com Inc were pulling out all the stops, offering free delivery with no minimum order requirement and bombarding shoppers with promotional emails. Companies had logged 531 million U.S. dollars in sales as of 10 a.m. ET, Adobe Analytics found.
On Wall Street, investors showed their enthusiasm. Shares of Amazon closed up 5 percent. Macy's Inc, Kohls Corp and Target shares rose as well.
In another estimate, Mastercard SpendingPulse forecast a 25 percent jump in e-commerce sales to at least 3 billion U.S. dollars, based on sales via the Mastercard payments network and estimates for other payment forms such as cash and check.
These U.S. forecasts are small in comparison to Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's 'Singles Day' earlier this month, when the Chinese e-commerce giant raked in 30.7 billion U.S. dollars in sales.
Some industry observers saw a down side to the U.S. shopping frenzy.
Bob Phibbs, chief executive of New York-based consultancy the Retail Doctor, warned of potential store closures if brick-and-mortar players discounted items too heavily this holiday season.
“Online discounts and free shipping are significantly cutting into retailers' profits,” he said. “Retailers are just spending money in the hopes that they don't lose too much more.”
The National Retail Federation forecast U.S. holiday retail sales, including online, in November and December will increase between 4.3 percent and 4.8 percent over 2017, for a total of 717.45 billion U.S. dollars to 720.89 billion U.S. dollars.