SAN JOSE, Calif., Nov. 28 (UPI) — The holiday shopping experience continues with online deals as retailers roll out Cyber Monday, expecting record results.
After Black Friday and the weekend in which 108.5 million people shopped online, a figure higher than the 99.5 million who visited retail stores, Adobe Digital Insights said it expects $3.36 billion to be spent online Monday, the most in history. A survey released Sunday by the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics said 122 million shoppers in the United States are expected to shop online.
Online discounts by Walmart, Target and Amazon.com, among others, are spreading to days other than Cyber Monday, diluting the impact of the one-day event, Fortune magazine reported Monday. It added that similar discounts are available in stores, lowering the stress on company’s websites; Target’s web page crashed under intense demand on Cyber Monday 2015, and the security firm Upguard recently said that just 10 minutes of website downtime could cost a major retailer $10 million in sales.
Ordering by smartphone is also increasing; Adobe said weekend e-commerce rose 17.3 percent over 2015 to more than $7.2 billion in sales, and 28 million shoppers are expected to complete purchases by smartphone on Monday. Walmart reported that 60 percent of its Black Friday sales involved phones.
