USA - Barron’s (Avenue/City Chic USA online pure plays) The...

USA - Barron’s (Avenue/City Chic USA online pure plays)

The holiday spending spree gathered pace over the weekend and Cyber Monday spending set a record as consumers turned to online shopping in their hunt for discounts.U.S. shoppers spent $12.4 billion online on Monday, 9.6% above last year, according to Adobe Analytics, surpassing the company’s initial projections. In the peak hour between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. Eastern consumers spent $15.7 million a minute.Advertisement - Scroll to ContinueMonday’s splurge builds on the momentum of Black Friday and the weekend. Shoppers spent $10.3 billion online on Saturday and Sunday, a 7.7% increase from the previous year, according to Adobe data. Consumers spent $9.8 billion on Black Friday, a 7.5% jump from 2022 levels. In total, Cyber Week—the five days from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday—brought in $38 billion overall, up 7.8% year-over-year, Adobe said. The trend of consumers using “buy now, pay later”options reached a record high, contributing $940 million to Monday’s sales—a 43% surge from last year, the company added. Adobe expects November to be the biggest month on record for the payment method.Payments company Block said Tuesday that sellers using its Square and Afterpay platforms registered a record 70 million transactions over the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend, up 14% from the previous year. It reported a 19% increase in “buy now, pay later” purchases made through Afterpay.The surge in online shopping helped offset some softness in bricks and mortar sales this weekend, said Matthew Katz, managing partner at SSA & Company, a global management consulting firm.