Sales broke records this holiday weekend

But inflation took its toll on online shopping

Shoppers spent big over the five-day holiday shopping weekend, breaking records and marking the most money spent on the year’s premier online shopping day.

Sales on Cyber Monday — the biggest shopping day of the long weekend — hit $11.3 billion, a 5.3 percent jump from last year, according to Adobe Analytics, while Black Friday online sales ticked up 2.3 percent to $9.12 billion. The figures are not adjusted for inflation, which has been hovering at decades-high levels, experts note. That suggests consumers could be spending more for less.

“If inflation is up 8 percent and sales are up 5 percent or so, people are definitely buying less, there’s no question about that,” said Forrester analyst Sucharita Kodali. She cautioned that without in-person sales numbers, it’s hard to say see a full picture.

But there’s some bright news for retailers — it seems more people are opening their wallets and searching for deals before peak gift-giving season hits.

A record 196.7 million people shopped over the weekend, according to the National Retail Federation. That “shattered expectations by more than 30 million,” according to the trade group’s president and chief executive Matthew Shay.

“Black Friday is a very big day and this continues to be a very important bellwether for the consumer psyche as well as the strength of our economy,” Shay said during a media call Tuesday, adding that the numbers reflect a promising enthusiasm from shoppers.

Online shopping thrived this year, according to data from Adobe Analytics. Consumers spent a total of $35.4 billion online over the five-day period. They spent $5.3 billion on Thanksgiving, $9.2 billion on Black Friday, a combined $9.6 billion over the weekend, and $11.3 billion on Cyber Monday.

The NRF reported that 130 million people shopped online over the weekend, a modest growth from last year’s 128 million. A record 59 percent shopped on their phone, up from about half last year, according to Phil Rist, the executive vice president of strategy at Prosper Insights and Analytic.

“It was very obvious this year that there was an enormous resurgence of in-store shopping,” Shay said.

But foot traffic data from the analytics firm Placer.ai found that visits to indoor shopping malls were down 2.3 percent compared to last year, while outlet malls saw a 3.9 percent decline, and open-air lifestyle centers were down .5 percent.

E-commerce platform Shopify, which tracks online and instore data using its product, reported that sales from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday broke records — 52 million consumers globally spent $7.5 billion on Shopify merchants, a 19 percent increase over last year.

“Consumers voted with their wallets over Black Friday, Cyber Monday by shopping with independent businesses,” said Shopify president Harley Finkelstein. “The future of commerce is on any surface, whether that’s shopping online or in store.”

Part of this could be because smaller merchants have been gaining share altogether by utilizing the Internet, Kodali said.

Still, it’s unlikely retailers will see the same boost as the last two seasons, when there was more of a rush to spend on shopping during the height of the pandemic.