Cyber Monday shoppers expected to spend record-setting $12.7B online

Online shoppers are projected to spend a record-breaking $12.7 billion on Cyber Monday, according to a report by Bloomberg that noted many people may find the deals this year underwhelming.

Cyber Monday will likely see a significant boost due to in-store sales plummeting during the coronavirus pandemic. Amazon, Walmart, Target and Best Buy have reportedly all been prepping for weeks, expanding delivering capacity and designating parking spaces for picking up digital orders.

However, Kristin McGrath, editor at the online deal-monitoring website BlackFriday.com, told Bloomberg that the deals that have been announced for Cyber Monday so far have not been any better than those offered during Black Friday.

“Amazon is offering the exact same deals on Echo speakers and some other devices as they did on Black Friday,” said McGrath. “Cyber Monday is not really the day to wait for anymore.”

Online Black Friday sales fell below projections made by Adobe Analytics, Bloomberg reported. The company estimated $10.3 billion would be spent, but U.S. shoppers ended up spending around $9 billion the day after Thanksgiving.

The news outlet notes that retailers have been encouraging shoppers to begin making purchases earlier this year in order to manage capacity, but many customers are too accustomed to waiting for price cuts. Due to the encouragement from retailers to shop early, stores may be reluctant to offer better deals later in the holiday season, hoping to avoid appearing disingenuous.

Adobe predicted that online Cyber Monday spending will increase by 35 percent, more than double the increase seen in previous years.

The risk for website malfunctions is also higher, though. Slow websites, vanishing shopping carts and payment issues are all potential problems that may occur.

Mario Ciabarra is CEO of Quantum Metric, a company that helps online retailers fix website issues. According to his company, online retail websites had 39 percent more errors on Black Friday than they did last year.

“Even large retailers could be crippled with the demand,” said Ciabarra. “Every minute counts and every customer counts.”