Expert answer · 3 min read

How did competitors perform last Cyber Monday?

As an e-commerce manager, I'm trying to understand how other businesses in my industry performed during the last Cyber Monday. I want to benchmark my store's performance, identify trends, and learn from successful strategies. My goal is to gather insights about conversion rates, average order value, total sales volume, and emerging promotional tactics that could inform my own upcoming holiday marketing plans. Understanding competitor performance will help me set more realistic goals and develop more competitive strategies for the next major shopping event.

The short answer

Cyber Monday 2024 generated $13.3B in US online sales - a 7.3% increase over 2023. Top-performing competitors shared three traits: early deal launches (starting 5-10 days before), mobile-optimized checkout (mobile drove 57% of revenue), and personalized offers that targeted undecided shoppers without discounting to everyone. Stores running blanket sitewide discounts underperformed on margin compared to those using behavioral targeting.

In depth

Cyber Monday 2024: How Competitors Performed and What Set the Winners Apart

Understanding competitor performance requires both macro market data and tactical signals. Here is what the data showed across industries in 2024 - and what separated the merchants who grew margin from those who just grew revenue.

Market-Level Performance: 2024 Benchmarks

Metric2024 ResultSource
Total US Online Sales$13.3BAdobe Analytics
YoY Growth+7.3%Adobe Analytics
Mobile Revenue Share57%Adobe Analytics
BNPL Share of Orders7.9%Adobe Analytics
Peak Hour8-11pm ESTSalesforce Commerce Cloud
Avg Discount - Electronics30%Adobe Analytics
Avg Discount - Apparel24%Adobe Analytics

How to Track Competitors Beyond Public Data

Market benchmarks show industry averages. To understand direct competitors, track these signals before, during, and after Cyber Monday:

SignalHow to Track ItWhat It Tells You
Discount strategySubscribe to their email list and SMS in SeptemberWhen they launched deals, what percentage they offered, how urgency was framed
Ad spend signalsMeta Ads Library, Google Ads Transparency CenterWhen they ramped up ad spend and what creative angles they used
Site traffic estimatesSimilarWeb, Semrush Traffic AnalyticsWhether their traffic grew more or less than yours - signals ad effectiveness
Customer sentimentTrustpilot, Google Reviews, social mentions post-eventWhat frustrated their customers (your opportunity) and what they praised

What the Winning Competitors Did Differently in 2024

  • Early access via email. They rewarded subscribers with early access 48-72 hours before the public sale, capturing committed buyers before the competition noise peaked.
  • Behavioral offer targeting. Rather than sitewide discounts, they showed time-limited offers only to visitors who had shown interest but were about to leave - protecting margins on customers who would have converted anyway.
  • Mobile checkout optimization. With 57% of revenue coming from mobile, any friction in mobile checkout directly reduced revenue. Winners ran checkout UX audits specifically on mobile in October.
  • Post-purchase upsells. Immediately after checkout, they presented a single, relevant one-click upsell - no forms, no re-entry of payment info. This added 8-15% to average order values without additional acquisition cost.

The Most Important Competitive Benchmark: Gross Margin, Not Revenue

A competitor running 30% off everything may report higher revenue than you, but at dramatically lower margin. Focus on margin-per-order and repeat purchase rate in the 60 days after Cyber Monday - these metrics separate the stores that built lasting business from those that just moved inventory at cost.

Benchmarking Your Own Offer Strategy with A/B Testing

Growth Suite's A/B Testing Module lets you run controlled experiments on your Cyber Monday offer configuration - testing variables like discount percentage, offer duration, and targeting criteria. You can optimize for conversion rate, AOV, or total revenue, and compare your results against variant performance in real time. This gives you internal benchmarks that are far more actionable than industry averages.

Growth Suite for Shopify

Put this answer to work in your store.

Growth Suite reads what each visitor is about to do and triggers the right offer at the right second — so the strategy above runs on its own.

14-day free trial · No credit card · Cancel anytime

Go deeper

Resources

All resources
Shopify Upselling & Cross-Selling - Growth Suite

Topic ·9 min read

Shopify Upselling & Cross-Selling

Most Shopify stores leave 10-30% of revenue on the table because they do not upsell or cross-sell effectively. This...

Shopify Countdown Timer - Growth Suite

Topic ·4 min read

Shopify Countdown Timer

Adding a timer takes 5 minutes. Making it convert without destroying trust? That's strategy. The complete guide to...

Shopify Cart Abandonment - Growth Suite

Topic ·3 min read

Shopify Cart Abandonment

70% of Shopify carts are abandoned. Learn why customers leave, how to prevent abandonment in real-time, and recover...

Shopify Discount - Growth Suite

Topic ·3 min read

Shopify Discount

Master Shopify discounts without sacrificing your profit margins. Learn strategic discount techniques, timing...