American consumers are set to spend $7.8 billion this Cyber Monday, making it the biggest online shopping day in U.S. history.
That figure outstrips 2017’s Cyber Monday spending by 18% and surpasses online spending on Black Friday in 2018 by more than $1.5 billion. The shopping holiday has grown quickly since its launch in 2005 as a counterpart to Black Friday, the official kick-off of the Christmas shopping period. That year Cyber Monday saw a mere $484 million in sales. It wasn’t until 2015 that Cyber Monday pulled in more than $3 billion, after 10 years.
Cyber Monday was invented to encourage consumers to shop online, but consumers don’t need much encouragement in that direction anymore. Even on Black Friday, which has traditionally drawn consumers to brick and mortar retailers, online shopping is starting to dominate. This year online shopping on Black Friday surged 23% while brick and mortar shopping fell.
It’s increasingly difficult to tell the difference between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, with many retailers participating in both sales and extending promotions as long as a week. Thanksgiving itself is now the fastest-growing shopping day.
But while Cyber Monday may break online shopping records in the U.S., it won’t hold a candle to the recent Singles Day, which saw sales of $30.7 billion (213.5 billion yuan) in online sales for China’s largest company and sponsor of the holiday, Alibaba.
