Cyber Monday shoppers spent $13.3 billion, the biggest shopping day of all time
By the end of Cyber Monday, consumers had spent $13.3 billion -- marking the biggest online shopping day of all time.
It surpassed the record that was reached just a few days prior, on Black Friday, when shoppers spent a record $10.8 billion online, according to Adobe Analytics.
The total also outpaced original estimates, which had put the day's projected figure at $13.2 billion, based on the fact that consumers had already spent in the neighborhood of $8.7 billion by 6:30 p.m. ET, Adobe reported.
"Despite early competitive discounts that drove record spending across Thanksgiving and Black Friday, many consumers still consider Cyber Monday the best day to get the season's top deals," said Vivek Pandya, lead analyst with Adobe Digital Insights.
"The day is off to a strong start," he said, "and with spending expected to ramp up in the evening hours, Adobe expects Cyber Monday will retain its place as the biggest e-commerce day of the year."
Peak online spending was expected between 8 and 10 p.m. ET, with Adobe estimating consumers would spend approximately $15.7 million per minute.
Yet, when all was said and done, even that guess turned out to be frugal; shoppers in fact spend in the realm of $15.8 million per minute during that evening interval, Adobe reported on Tuesday.
Spending trends for Cyber Monday
Some of the must-have items driving shoppers to fill their virtual shopping carts on Cyber Monday were: Bluetooth headphones and speakers, computers and laptops, electric scooters and bikes, card and board games, gaming consoles and video games, stuffed animals and dolls, skin care products, apparel, gift cards, jewelry, smartwatches, patio heaters and TVs.
But toys were the clear winner, Adobe said, with online sales 680% higher for that spending category than they would have been on an average day in October 2024.
And many people purchased those in-demand items using their smartphones.
Although people typically shopped from their work computers throughout the weekday, driving desktop-based sales figures, shoppers are getting more comfortable with smaller screens, Adobe said.
That's translated to a surge of purchases on mobile devices.
On Cyber Monday, 54.8% of online sales were completed via a mobile device throughout the day and afternoon, representing $4.76 billion in sales. That represents an increase of 9.6% since 2023.
Another trend of note this year included the rise of pay-later purchasing, Adobe noted.
"Buy now, pay later" options represented about $1 billion in spending on Cyber Monday, Adobe reported, with one survey revealing that most BNPL purchases were electronics, apparel, video games and groceries.
Two big influences behind online shopping this year were social media influencers -- whose content is seven times more effective at converting sales than social media posts alone -- and chatbot recommendations, which consumers are increasingly turning to for product recommendations and as a source of deals, according to Adobe.
Online spending across Cyber Week (the five-day period including Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday) was expected to reach $40.6 billion, but in fact soared to $41.1 billion, Adobe reported on Tuesday. That is an increase of 8.2% from 2023.
Adobe Analytics now projects that the entire holiday season will bring in about $240.8 billion in online sales.
And while deals may come down slightly from their Cyber Monday peak, Adobe said that online shoppers can still expect to find great bargains -- particularly in computers, toys, electronics and apparel -- through the end of December.
ABC News' Zunaira Zaki contributed to this report.
