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Bloomberg
Online shoppers in the US are expected to drop a record-busting $12.7 billion on Cyber Monday — the busiest e-commerce day of the year — presenting a valuable opportunity for retailers whose websites, customer service departments and delivery operations can withstand the period of crushing traffic.
Amazon.com Inc, Walmart Inc, Target Corp, Best Buy Co and others have been preparing for the 2020 holiday deluge for months. This week will be the ultimate test for their new investments in ramping up delivery capacity and adding features like parking lot pickup for digital orders.
The Covid-19 surge kept crowd-averse shoppers away from physical malls on Black Friday, reinforcing predictions that online shopping will soar this year. Adobe Analytics predicts that spending Cyber Monday spending for 2020 will climb by 35% — more than double the growth rate in the years prior to the pandemic. That also means that any service interruptions on Cyber Monday — slow websites, payment processing problems, shopping carts that vanish before checkout — could be painful for companies.
“Even large retailers could be crippled with the demand,†said Mario Ciabarra, chief executive officer at Quantum Metric, which helps online retailers
fix website problems. “Every minute counts and every customer counts.â€
There were already signs that some websites are struggling to handle the load. Websites for prominent retailers had 39% more errors on Black Friday than they did a year ago, according to Quantum Metric.
US Shoppers spent $9 billion online on Black Friday, according to Adobe Inc, missing its forecast of $10.3 billion, indicating shoppers reacted to deals earlier in the holiday season and warnings about potential shipping problems in December.
Retailers have been enticing people to shop earlier in the season to avoid capacity problems. But Cyber Monday will likely still be the peak, because many shoppers are conditioned to hold off on big purchases in anticipation of price cuts.