Online Shoppers Spent Nearly Half A Billion Early Cyber Monday, Sales On Track To Hit $3 Billion

Though the lines have blurred around Cyber Monday, as retailers have extended their online discounts and savings both before and after the traditionally large online sales day, it’s still on track to break records this year.

According to new data released this morning from Adobe, the firm expects this Cyber Monday to be the largest online sales day ever with $3 billion in sales by its end. By 10 a.m. Eastern, consumers had already spent nearly half a billion ($490 million), Adobe says, also a new record compared to the same time frame last year.

Sales were up 14 percent over last year, and out-of-stock levels were also at an all-time-high. According to Adobe’s data, 15 out of 100 product views were seeing out-of-stock messages this morning, or two-and-a-half times the normal rate.

Popular products this year included hot toys like those associated with the upcoming Star Wars movie (e.g. the R2D2 Interactive Robotic Droid, Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens Series 6 inch Figures, LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar 75097), as well as the Fisher-Price Imaginext Supernova Battle Rover.

Other items selling out included electronics like the PlayStation 4 Disney Infinity 3.0 Limited Edition Star Wars 500GB Console Bundle (PS4); PlayStation 4 Star Wars: Battlefront Limited Edition 500 GB Console Bundle (PS4); Xbox One 1TB Fallout 4 Console Bundle; and the Xbox One 1 TB Halo: The Master Chief Collection Console Bundle.

Adobe’s data is pulled from measurements of traffic sent to over 4,500 U.S. retailers’ websites, including 80 percent of all online transactions seen among the top 100 U.S. retailers, the company says. Between midnight and 10 AM this morning, the firm had measured 50 million visits to come to its conclusions.

In addition to seeing record-breaking traffic, which led to a number of online sites such as Target.com crashing under the load of increased visitors, mobile traffic has also been on the rise. Mobile accounted for 53 percent of shopping visits (41 percent from phones and 12 percent from tablets), driving 32 percent of online sales (20 percent from phones and 12 percent from tablets). In other words, mobile hasn’t yet to overtake the desktop when it comes to conversions, but it’s certainly a force to be reckoned with when it comes to website visits in general – something that plays a significant role in the earlier stages of online shopping, including discovery, price comparisons, or other product research.

Over $156 million in sales are attributed to mobile, says Adobe, including $98 million from phones, and $58 million tablets.

From Thanksgiving through Sunday, Adobe now says that $8.03 billion was spent online – a 17 percent increase, or $1.14 billion more than in 2014. Average order value was $135.25 (4 percent year-over-year growth), with $29.38 spent per Internet user.