Cyber sales are bigger than ever before
Americans spent the holiday weekend binge shopping from their couches.
Bargain-hunters ditched long lines and chaotic malls to snag their holiday-season steals via computers and mobile devices — a trend expected to peak on Cyber Monday, the biggest online shopping day of the year, analysts said.
Convenience and great deals are driving the trend, said Becky Tasker, a managing analyst at Adobe Digital Insights.
Tasker expects Cyber Monday to generate at least $3.36 billion in revenue — up nearly 10 percent from last year — bringing the Thursday-through-Monday online total to more than $10 billion.
“People are getting more comfortable with shopping online,” she said.
Online sales already helped make Black Friday the biggest in history, thanks to $3.34 billion in cyber-purchases, a 21.6 percent increase from 2015, Adobe Digital’s survey found.
The National Retail Federation expects the total sales for the holiday season, including in-store purchases, to swell to $655.8 billion — up nearly 4 percent from 2015.
Amazon leads the pack with its Cyber Monday offerings, which include lightning deals timed to last anywhere from a few minutes until the product is sold out.
The online-retail powerhouse is discounting 4K TVs by as much as $2,203 and slashing prices on all its original products including Kindles, Amazon Echo and Fire TV.
Walmart and Target are also providing deep discounts on TVs and other electronics including $250 gaming consoles, tablets starting at less than $100, and gift-card incentives added to smartphone-leasing programs.