Cyber Monday is meant to be the day for online shopping promotions, even at the end of an already shopping- and deal-heavy Thanksgiving weekend.

In a Digital Commerce 360 panel of 100 online retailers from the 2024 edition of the Top 1000, 90.0% of retailers surveyed offered promotions of some kind on Cyber Monday, which fell on Dec. 2 this year. That’s up from 65.0% during a control period about two weeks prior.

The Top 1000 is Digital Commerce 360’s database ranking the largest online retailers by their annual ecommerce sales.

Among those retailers, 91.7% specifically offered promotions mentioning Cyber Monday. 7.1% still displayed Black Friday promotions, and another 7.1% tied deals directly to Christmas.

Cyber Monday promotions remain widespread

Cyber Monday promotions run deep

Most retailers offering Cyber Monday promotions (90.5%) took a percentage off their product prices. Nearly half (47.6%) offered more than one type of discount, such as buy one, get one (BOGO); a gift with purchase; or a dollar amount off. During the control period, 88.3% of promotional retailers offered a percent off their prices, with a quarter offering multiple types of promotions. A fifth of promotional retailers touted free shipping options on Dec. 2, compared to just 6.7% during the control period.

All discount types get more popular on Cyber Monday

Dollar-off promotions grew slightly, remaining the second most popular option, with 34.5% of sale-running retailers touting a price cut, up from 28.3% in the control.

The smallest and largest discounts grew on Cyber Monday, up to 8% and 90% — from 6% and 80%, respectively, in the control period. The median largest discount offered by an online retailer hit 50% (compared to 40% in the control), while the smallest median discount grew slightly to 25% from 20%.

Nearly twice as many apparel and accessory retailers in our panel offered promotions compared to the control, up to 92.1% from 47.4%. The only category to shrink was office supply retailers, where one of the two in the panel abstained from Cyber Monday sales while running discounts earlier in the season.

How were Cyber Monday sales compared to last year?

The 90.0% of paneled retailers offering promotions this year is a slight decline from 2023’s 92.0%. But Cyber Monday mentions were more prevalent this year, up to 91.7% compared to 82.5% last year.

When it comes to fulfillment, 72.2% of retailers offering Cyber Monday promotions this year also offered free shipping on their homepage. That’s up slightly from last year, when 67.0% of comparable retailers offered free shipping in some capacity.

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