The folks who track online sales say this is going to be a record Cyber Monday. Although the Retail Council of Canada doesn’t track online sales, they are tracked south of the border and if our American neighbours are any indication, Cyber Monday sales will be up in Canada as well.
Adobe Analytics expects U.S. online sales on Monday to hit a record US$9.4 billion, more than C$12 billion. That would be a 19 per cent increase over last year. And much of that online shopping is being done on smartphones, which accounted for 39 per cent of all online sales on Black Friday.
The International Council of Shopping Centers expected 77 per cent of consumers to snag deals online.
Amazon is coming off of their biggest Black Friday ever and last year’s Cyber Monday was the single busiest shopping day in its history.
Some top selling products so far – Frozen 2 Toys, LOL Surprise Dolls and Madden NFL 20.
Target is staffing a holiday command centre to keep online purchases on track.
And electronics are selling well too. Best Buy is operating an “ecommerce war room” to monitor track and to make sure things go smoothly.
“Typically consumer electronics are some of the most important things on people's list for Christmas and so we have a chance to be able to fulfill those dreams. I think the teams are really excited, we feel really well positioned and we're really excited for the holiday,” said Corry Barry, Best Buy CEO.
Shipping companies like UPS are also cashing in. Business for UPS doubles over the holidays. That’s good for Boeing too. UPS is buying about 50 new planes to keep up with shipping demands.
“People want things faster, sooner, and more reliable. We're gonna really be able to meet that demand that our customers are having for this-- upcoming peak season,” said Captain Houston Mill, VP UPS Flight Operations.
Shop safely online - only shop in secure websites; those with https:// in the address bar. Also, watch out for look-alike web addresses and think before you click – be wary of links in email and social media. Be safe when shopping online.
Canadian ecommerce company Shopify has posted a real time map showing the number of sales in dollars and location of online sales for Cyber Monday.
