Cyber Monday 2018 is likely to be the highest-online selling day of the holiday season this year and in US e-commerce history with 79 billion in online sales Adobe which tracks trillions of transactions across the US among major retailers online says that today will see 79 billion in sales online when all is tallied up 197 percent on 2017s figure of 66 billion Mobile devices accounted for 283 billion in sales for the day another high watermark neatly 36 percent of all sales growing the proportion of transactions not on desktop Smartphones were the majority of that activity They alone accounted for 277 percent of sales or 22 billion Mobile also accounted for 543 percent of visits to retail sites versus 347 percent for desktops and 64 percent for tablets Thats an increase of 321 percent growth in smartphone visits over last year Smartphones also have accounted for 426 percent of sales thus far or 430 percent year-over-year growth Among the biggest retail winners Amazon today said it was the biggest shopping day in its history Although it didnt provide sales figures it said the Turkey 5 broke records as customers in the US purchased millions more products over the five day period vs the same period last year with more than 18 million toys and more than 13 million fashion items on Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined Its no surprise that Cyber Monday is so strong for online shopping after a weekend of people juggling brisk online buying with visiting physical stores and hassling with each other in stores Monday many went back to work but the sales kept going And so there was a significant swing to online shopping driven by promotions on sites driving 253 percent of traffic paid search 251 percent natural search 188 percent and email 242 percent Social media drove only 11 percent of traffic The holiday sales season used to kick off on Black Friday but e-commerce and the trend of shopping whenever you want and not just when a store is open has led to sales and seasonal promotions and shopping earlier and earlier There has as a result been 585 billion spent this month online so far up nearly 20 percent over last year with every day seeing sales of over 1 billion six have broken the 2 billion mark On Black Friday online US sales hit 62 billion with more than one-third of sales coming from mobile devices Thanksgiving this year had a record 37 billion in sales while one of the newer shopping holidays Small Business Saturday rung up 302 billion in online sales said Adobe up 255 percent Small Business Saturday kicked off a big Thanksgiving weekend for shopping Adobe says November 24-25 was the biggest online shopping weekend in US history netting 64 billion Buying started early on Cyber Monday As of 7 AM PST 10 AM EST on Monday consumers had already spent over half a billion dollars 0531 billion specifically with online retailers by that point By 5 PM PST the total for the day reached 62 billion As in past years we expected that Cyber Monday deals would entice early shoppers kicking off one of the largest online shopping weeks of the year the analysts at MasterCard said Our initial early numbers are showing that overall online retail sales this morning are in line with the season expectations and will likely set new records for this individual day But its not only daytime shopping that will net large returns for retailers Adobe estimates that the three golden hours of retail between 10 00 pm and 1 00 am Eastern brought in 17 billion roughly 300 million more compared to an average full day in the year The idea here is that shoppers catch final Cyber Monday deals right before bed or after work on the west coast Subsequent conversion rates peak above 73 percent for the season almost 25 times higher compared to the rest of the year But these are estimates and so you are bound to get a lot of variation MasterCard provides a slightly more conservative figure its SpendingPulse analytics predict that total sales could exceed 3 billion It also estimated that last years Cyber Monday sale day brought in no more than 24 billion While Adobe says that it builds its estimates by tracking transactions at 80 of the biggest retailers online in the US Mastercard tells us that SpendingPulse uses national retail sales across all payments types in select markets around the world The findings are based on aggregate sales activity in the Mastercard payments network coupled with survey-based estimates for certain other payment forms such as cash and check The real numbers may lie somewhere in the middle More generally strong sales today indicate just how big so-called shopping holidays and their marketing push have become for e-commerce Despite some of the best deals coming earlier in the holiday season the Cyber Monday brand has great staying power Many shoppers have waited on certain purchases with three hours tonight expected to bring in as much revenue as an average full day While certain discounts have remained since Black Friday out-of-stock rates are starting to peak up and shoppers looking for the hottest products should not wait much longer said Taylor Schreiner director Adobe Digital Insights Buying trends While smartphones have a clear role to play in sales its not an evenly-distributed trend Adobe noted that larger reatilers over 1 billion year in sales have better tech in place for converting browsers to buyers Smaller retailers did better with desktop sales And generally mobile is becoming an increasingly credible platform Converting mobile traffic to sales has long been a thorn in the side of retailers but investments in making the experience faster and easier have paid off said Taylor Schreiner director Adobe Digital Insights Cyber Monday shoppers relied heavily on their mobile devices resulting in an unprecedented 556 percent year-over-year increase from smartphones alone Additionally Buy Online Pick Up Instore saw a record 65 increase signaling that retailers are increasingly fulfilling consumer expectations for integrated cross-channel experiences The report also suggests that Cyber Monday was the best day to buy TVs 18 percent discounts anf computers 178 percent with toys doing best the Sunday before Out-of-stock levels were above average at 24 percent working out to 187 million in lost sales Denver was the biggest when it come to basket size 163 with 157 in San Francisco 156 in New York 156 in Portland and 154 in Seattle Tacoma The nationwide average was 138 up 61 percent Additional reporting Sarah Perez