'Cyber Monday' Deals, News & Updates: Cyber Monday Hits Huge Sales Records Online

At first look, the digits seem like an error. However, it is true: for the first time, Cyber Monday just hit a record-breaking $3.45 billion in sales. This was one of the Thanksgiving Holiday shopping relays.

Despite this record, Fortune says the rate of growth in sales is slower than that of Thanksgiving and Black Friday sales. Adobe Digital Insights pointed out that these two significant sales event recorded very low in prices last year. That may be the reason why sales were definitely higher in growth rate this year for Black Friday and Thanksgiving sales.

Adobe said the sales record on Cyber Monday this year exceeded by 2.6 percent in their initial prediction. $3.5 billion is 12.1 percent higher than Cyber Monday in the year 2015. CFRA's senior equity analyst Efraim Levy says Cyber Monday, Black Friday and the Thanksgiving sales are one of the best branding techniques which immediately attract buyers online. "The competition is who can be first with the deal to snag the sale before someone else does,'' Levy said.

Although Cyber Monday was dedicated for a day of sale, buyers are now highly using online shopping as their medium to buy for the holiday season. Statistics say that more people have now stayed at home and shopped through online stores from Thanksgiving day and on Sunday. NRF reports that 43.8 percent of these buyers bought smartphones, toys, computers, and clothes.

This is quite affecting those who have physical stores. There has been a drop in sales record when Black Friday started. RetailNext's analytics confirmed that there's a 10.4 percent decrease in sales for in-store outlets this year, as compared to Black Friday last year. Because of this, critics say it's time for physical retail outlets to consider building their online stores to compete with big retail online companies during these sale seasons.