Cyber Monday Update: Bargain-Conscious Online Consumers Increase Spend

Consumers are becoming more price-conscious and took full advantage of discounted offers on Cyber Monday.

Goldman Sachs collected data from Adobe, Salesforce, and Mastercard, among others. Each company reported online sales growth at the start of Cyber Week. Categories such as electronics, footwear, sporting goods and jewelry were especially strong.

According to Raymond James, active footwear saw the biggest year-on-year sales growth. The category spiked 17%, while general footwear was up 14%. Toys and learning saw an increase of 15% over last year and beauty and skincare rose 10%. Home and furniture saw the biggest sales decline, down 10% over last year.

Cyber Monday Consumers Are Price Sensitive

Consumers took full advantage of discounted promotions. But they also showed a degree of caution. Analysts at Goldman Sachs reported a pickup in “buy-now-pay-later” and “no-rush shipping” options.

“Consumers continue to be particularly value-oriented and price-conscious, with promotions playing an important role in purchasing decisions,” said analyst Eric Sheridan.

Among the heaviest discounts were to be found in the active footwear category, according to research by Raymond James.

Nike (NYSE:NKE) was offering up to 60% plus free shipping and returns, while Foot Locker (NYSE:FL) was offering up to 60% — raised from last year’s 50%.

Among the digital commerce companies, Etsy (NASDAQ:ETSY) was giving discounts of up to 60%, while Chewy (NYSE:CHWY) was offering savings of up to 50%.

“Of the brands we track, 13 brands were more promotional, six were less, and 27 were the same as last year, said Raymond James analyst Rick Patel.

Promotions Likely To Remain Into 2024

Patel added: “We expect the remainder of 2023 to remain promotional for most companies given the weak macro backdrop and certain categories still grappling with high marketplace inventories.”

Goldman Sachs also expected eCommerce to remain highly promotional driven by consumers becoming increasingly price sensitive.

“We continue to highlight Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) as our preferred way for investors to be exposed to the sector in volatile times,” said Sheridan.

He also highlighted Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Meta (NASDAQ:META) as the best positioned stocks to benefit from digital advertising.

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