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Americans spent a staggering $10.8 billion on Cyber Monday, making it the biggest e-commerce shopping day on record, according to recent data from Adobe Analytics

Compared to 2019, Cyber Monday spending increased by 15.1% in 2020, even in lieu of a global pandemic that is making life increasingly difficult for most Americans. Adobe draws its data from 80 of the top 100 top e-commerce websites.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, retailers began holiday sales early, allowing shoppers to take advantage of deep discounts as early as October. Big box retailers, in particular, decided to coincide their sales with Amazon's Prime Day in mid-October. Thus, it can be quite difficult to surmise how much revenue has been generated during the last three months.

With surging e-commerce sales comes metric changes companies look out for. Originally, the size of lines, i.e. foot traffic, would indicate how strong Black Friday sales will turn out to be.

In reality, the coronavirus has changed how Americans shop, leading to a 30% year over year increase in curbside pickup requests.

“Throughout the remainder of the holiday season, we expect to see record sales continue and curbside pickup to gain even more momentum as shoppers avoid crowds and potential shipping delays,” said Taylor Schreiner, a director at Adobe Digital Insights.

Another interesting development is the primary device in which most Americans shopped for good during the holiday. Roughly 37% of digital sales can be attributed to mobile phones, pointing to the increasing reliance on digital solutions in a pandemic-ridden world.

In addition to Cyber Monday, consumer spending on Thanksgiving and Black Friday also rose 22% when compared to 2019. Black Friday sales totaled $9 billion while Thanksgiving sales raked in $5.1 billion.

Heading into 2021, it will be interesting to see if a COVID-19 vaccine will revert American shoppers to previous norms. Or, it is quite possible that Americans will begin to increasingly move their holiday shopping online.

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