Online sales for Black Friday-Cyber Monday 2021 dropped for the first time since 2005.

Research shows that Cyber Monday and Black Friday spending dropped for the first time since 2005, with sales lower in 2021 than in 2020.

Research shows that Cyber Monday and Black Friday spending dropped for the first time since 2005, with sales lower in 2021 than in 2020. According to an annual survey released by the National Retail Federation (NRF) on November 30, 2021, a total of 179.8 million shoppers made purchases in stores and online over the shopping season from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday, compared with 186.4 million shoppers in 2020. The data shows that approximately 104.9 million shoppers visited stores, up from 92.3 million in 2020, and the overall number of online shoppers decreased to 127.8 million from 145.4 million compared to 2020.

Additionally, Thanksgiving weekend shoppers spent an average of $301.27 on holiday-related purchases such as gifts, décor, apparel, and toys, a slight decrease from $311.75 in 2020. As in previous years, most ($215.40) of that amount was spent directly on gifts. The NRF predicted a sales increase of 8.5 percent to 10.5 percent for November and December 2021, after 8 percent growth in those months in 2020.

Cyber Monday hit $6 billion in digital spending in 2018 compared to $7.9 billion in 2019. Meanwhile, approximately 142.2 million people shopped online during the 2019 Black Friday weekend, while 124 million hit the stores. Particularly on 2019 Black Friday, 84.2 million shopped in stores, while 93.2 million shopped online, according to BlackFriday.com.

The analytics from NRF and ComScore shows that since 2005 there was an increase in online shopping on Cyber Monday and Black Friday until last year, where due to the pandemic, people were constrained to shop online. However, Reuters reported that people were probably eager to return to in-person shopping resulting in increased in-store foot traffic, while the online shopping curve witnessed a decline in 2021 compared to previous years.