Online Black Friday Shopping Dips: Could Cyber Monday Be Taking Over The Tradition?

Online Black Friday shopping profits have declined for the first time ever this year, according to Adobe Analytics data.

The 2021 profits for online Black Friday totaled $8.9 billion, compared to last year's $9 billion, which increased 21.6% from the year before. Profits could be lower due to deals being offered earlier and the pandemic.

"For the first time ever, Black Friday saw a reversal of the growth trend of past years," Vivek Pandya, lead analyst for Adobe Digital Insights, said in a statement. "Shoppers are being strategic in their gift shopping, buying much earlier in the season and being flexible about when they shop to make sure they get the best deals."

Online shopping for Thanksgiving also did not see an increase for this year. Profits stayed the same as last year at $5.1 billion, according to Adobe’s data, which tracks over 1 trillion visits to U.S. retail sites, and 100 million stock keeping units.

The data could be an example that “consumers started to shift their spending to earlier in the season, responding to promotions and deals from retailers that started in October," the company said.

Although the Black Friday tradition for shopping has seen a decline, Cyber Monday is expected to bring in $10.2 billion to $11.3 billion in sales. Cyber Monday is considered the biggest online shopping day of the year.

Consumers have spent $89.9 billion in online shopping since Nov. 1 and are on track to spend $207 billion by the end of Christmas, according to Adobe.