Retailers are hitting the send button on push notifications, text messages and video ads to reach American shoppers on Cyber Monday, promoting cosmetics, electronics, toys, clothing and other products at deep discounts.
Online spending on Cyber Monday will reach $12.4 billion, according to Adobe Digital Insights, which tracks data through Adobe’s Experience Cloud service for e-commerce platforms.
That would represent a record and an increase of more than 5.4% compared to a year ago, Adobe said.
At midday, investors pointed to Amazon, Walmart and Apple as possible winners of the day.
“It’s a little early to see how this all plays out,” said Jim Worden, chief investment officer at Wealth Consulting Group, which owns Amazon shares. “There is still good spending” online. “Although the prices of televisions and some electronic devices have come down a lot, I don’t know how much the average consumer is going to consume,” he said.
“One of the biggest things we would look at is if the discounts throughout the day started to deepen,” said Brian Mulberry, client portfolio manager at Zacks Investment Management, which owns shares of Amazon and Walmart.
But Amazon and Apple “don’t have to discount as much,” he said, indicating potentially healthy consumer demand for their products during Cyber Monday.
Retail consultant Carol Spieckerman said midday Monday that “the biggest discounts are yet to come and shoppers are well aware of that.”
He noted the lackluster traffic at stores in black Fridaythe day after Thanksgiving, as a sign that shoppers were very picky.
Overall Black Friday sales in stores and online were up 2.5% compared to a year ago, according to Mastercard SpendingPulse, which measures all payment types.
U.S. online sales rose 8.5%, while U.S. in-store sales rose just 1.1%, it said.
Charles Sizemore, chief investment officer at Sizemore Capital Management, said he expects retailers will have to discount more in the coming weeks.
This makes it worry about profit margins at a time when input and labor costs have not fallen and buyers remain demanding. “I really think margins are going to be depressed” during the holiday season,” said Sizemore, whose company owns about $2 million in shares of Walmart and Target each.
Last-minute shoppers could spend $4 billion between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET on Monday alone, said Vivek Pandya, principal analyst at Adobe Digital Insights. “Consumers will be worried that discounts will weaken after that,” he added.
Amazon began marketing Cyber Monday deals on Saturday, including up to 46% off some Instant Pot kitchen appliances, 37% off select Vitamix blenders, and 35% off Amazon devices, including a 55-inch Amazon Fire TV.
Walmart, eager to capture market share, cut prices Sunday night, joining a trend of retailers offering early discounts on major shopping days. On Monday, Walmart increased discounts on some clothing items to 60%, up from 50% on Black Friday.
Apple offered up to $200 Apple Gift Cards with eligible purchases.
