2023-11-27 19:58:21
Retailers hit the push button on push notifications, text messages and streaming video ads to reach U.S. shoppers on Cyber Monday, touting cosmetics, electronics, toys, clothing and other products with significant discounts.
Online spending for Cyber Monday is expected to reach $12.4 billion, according to Adobe Digital Insights, which tracks data through Adobe’s Experience Cloud service for e-commerce platforms. This would represent a record and an increase of more than 5.4% from last year, according to Adobe.
At midday, investors were looking at Amazon, Walmart and Apple as the day’s possible winners.
“It’s a little early to see how this is all going to play out,” said Jim Worden, chief investment officer of Wealth Consulting Group, which owns shares of Amazon. “There is still good online spending. “While the prices of TVs and some electronics have come down a lot, I don’t know to what extent the average consumer will snack on these products,” he said .
Brian Mulberry, client portfolio manager at Zacks Investment Management, which owns Amazon and Walmart shares, said: “One of the biggest things we would look at is if the discounts throughout the day started to intensify.”
But Amazon and Apple “don’t need to discount as much,” he said, indicating possible healthy consumer demand for their merchandise on Cyber Monday.
Carol Spieckerman, a retail consultant, said at midday Monday that “the deepest discounts are yet to come, and shoppers are all too aware of that.” She pointed out that low store traffic on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, was a sign that consumers were very demanding.
Generally
Black Friday Sales
in stores and online increased by 2.5% compared to last year,
selon Mastercard SpendingPulse
which measures all payment types. U.S. online sales grew 8.5%, while in-store sales grew just 1.1%.
Charles Sizemore, chief investment officer at Sizemore Capital Management, said he expected retailers would be forced to cut prices further in the coming weeks.
He is therefore concerned about profit margins at a time when input and labor costs have not fallen and consumers continue to be demanding. “I definitely think margins are going to be squeezed during the holiday season,” said Mr. Sizemore, whose company owns about $2 million in shares of Walmart and Target.
Last-minute shoppers could spend $4 billion between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET alone, according to Vivek Pandya, chief analyst at Adobe Digital Insights. “Consumers will be worried about the weakening of discounts later,” he added.
Amazon began selling Cyber Monday deals as early as Saturday, including discounts of up to 46% off select Instant Pot kitchen appliances, 37% off select Vitamix blenders, and 35% off Amazon appliances, including an Amazon Fire 55 inch TV.
Walmart, eager to capture market share, slashed its prices overnight from Sunday to Monday, joining the trend of retailers offering early discounts on major shopping days. On Monday, Walmart increased discounts on select clothing to 60% off, up from 50% on Black Friday.
Apple offered Apple gift cards worth up to $200 for eligible purchases.
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