Once slighted as a marketing gimmick by online retailers, Cyber Monday has turned into one of the holiday shopping season’s most important selling days — and this year its record-setting totals could help make up for lackluster sales over the Thanksgiving weekend.
Much of the retail spending has shifted, not disappeared, to online and to later in the holiday season, retail experts say. By midafternoon Monday, online sales were up 17.5 percent from the year before, according to IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark, the arm of IBM that tracks real-time retail sales, with the day’s total take predicted to top $2 billion.
And more spending — both online and in stores — is yet to come. The traditional holiday shopping days aren’t a barometer of the retail season they way they used to be, according to retail experts.
“You’re seeing the holiday period get longer in terms of the number of days and number of hours,” said Larry Chiagouris, a consumer behavior expert at Pace University and marketing consultant. “People are shopping online for an increasing portion of purchases and for more expensive purchases.”
The season got off to a slow start over the weekend when purchases at stores and on websites fell 2.9 percent to $57.4 billion during the four days beginning on Thanksgiving, according to the National Retail Federation. While 141 million people shopped, about 2 million more than last year, average spending dropped 3.9 percent to $407.02, the survey showed.
Some experts expect online sales will help make up for the disappointing holiday weekend online. Cyber Monday sales are projected to hit a record $2 billion this year, according to comScore. Cyber Monday last year generated about $1.5 billion.
The National Retail Federation expects 131 million online shoppers to make purchases on Cyber Monday — nearly matching the 141 million total shoppers who hit stores during the entire four-day weekend.
And while Cyber Monday is likely to lead the year for online sales, consumers will be buying on their computers or smartphones throughout the season at higher rates. With the shortest shopping season in 11 years — down to 26 days from 32 last year — more consumers will order online, while at work or running errands, to try to make that Christmas Eve deadline.
This year, Thanksgiving and Black Friday saw more online sales than previous years, with consumers spending $1.1 billion online Thursday and more than $1.9 billion Friday, according to the Adobe (ADBE) Digital Index.
“The spending is shifting to online,” said Roger Kay, an analyst with Massachusetts-based Endpoint Technologies Associates. “We skipped the downside (of Black Friday), which is the fights and brawls, and the waiting in line, and being too hot or being too cold. The convenience outweighs the chagrin.”
When the season is over, retailers will find that total holiday purchases will be more than last year, Chiagouris said. He forecasts slightly more than 4 percent above last year; the National Retail Federation predicted 3.9 percent.
Experts say retailers have encouraged this shift by offering perks to capture a piece of the growing e-commerce pie. Most large retailers offer exclusive online and mobile discounts, free delivery during the holidays and free pickup in stores. Better technology in stores and in the hands of consumers has created a hybrid shopping experience — shoppers using their phones to scan bar codes of items in stores, price compare and build gift registries.
“Retailers really are making the shopping experience much more ubiquitous and free flowing for the customer,” said Dale Achabal, executive director of the Retail Management Institute at Santa Clara University. All of these digital options have, for some consumers, taken away the sense of urgency and need for instant gratification, moving more purchases online and later in the season.
In addition to extending the holiday shopping calendar — more stores opened on Thanksgiving this year — retailers are also extending the deals. Walmart and Best Buy have kicked off cyber sales events that will last all week. Many consumers who said they were disappointed with the Black Friday weekend deals are waiting to buy later in the season — because they know the deals will last.
Stephanie Chan of San Francisco hit stores in the city for a couple of hours Black Friday morning to pick up some clothes for herself, but wasn’t rushing to buy holiday gifts. She said the store deals weren’t that great — about 30 percent off — and she was worried about her credit card bill. She said she planned to do most of her shopping online later this month.
“It’s kind of like, why get out of bed?” she said.
Despite all the doorbusters retailers offered to get customers in the store, sometimes online is still the best deal, said Thom Blischok, a retail expert with Booz & Co. Shopping online can allow the average American shopper spending about $730 on holiday gifts to save an extra $50.
He said: “Many shoppers are going straight to cybershopping — because it’s simpler and potentially less expensive.”
Contact Heather Somerville at 510-208-6413. Follow her at Twitter.com/heathersomervil.
