Cyber Monday weekend sales hit record highs online

Following the Thanksgiving holiday, online shopping in the U.S. broke records during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend, bringing in a total of $44.2 billion in online revenue, up 7.7% from 2024, from Nov. 28 through Dec. 1. 

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Considering the rise in economic uncertainty from new tariffs to inflation impacting household financials, the weekend still managed to accumulate $14.25 billion on Cyber Monday and $11 billion in Black Friday virtual sales, making this the largest online shopping weekend in the U.S to date. 

As the majority of the nation shifts from retail stores to computers, especially after COVID-19, many companies such as Walmart, Target, Kohl’s and Best Buy have had to adjust their promotional strategies to provide both in-person and virtual offers, lowering prices and offering discounts for four days, between Thanksgiving and the first of December. 

With Cyber Monday now influenced heavily by “data analytics, AI algorithms, and real-time pricing tools”, according to Investopedia, product promotions have become more personalized towards the needs of consumers. More than any other year, AI traffic increased significantly, rising to 670% on Cyber Monday specifically and 760% overall as consumers searched for store links and deals through software such as ChatGPT and Gemini. 

Social commerce grew exponentially, with consumer preferences shifting to mobile device purchases and social media browsing, driving 3.6% of cyber sales and rising in effectiveness by 56.6% compared with traditional marketing efforts from prior years. CNBC anticipated this trend early on, as experts predicted that orders made through socials would increase greatly in 2025. 

Mobile buying has also become second-nature, accounting for 57.5% of sales on Monday, and nearly $8.2 billion total. Leading purchase genres from the weekend were electronics with discounts of 31% off, toys with sales at 28% off, and apparel with deals at 25% off.