CYBER MONDAY SHOPPERS ON TRACK TO HIT A RECORD $9.4 BILLION

Cyber Monday shoppers have already spent $473 million in online sales, as of 9am EST, according to data released by Adobe Analytics, which monitors the online transactions of 80 of the top 100 web retailers in the U.S.

Cyber Monday online sales are on track to hit $9.4 billion, or 18.9 percent year-over-year growth, according to preliminary data, Adobe said.

Between 10pm EST Monday and 2am EST Tuesday, Adobe is expecting shoppers to spend $2.8 billion, 30 percent of the day’s revenue. Shoppers are expected to spend $11 million per minute during the peak hour of 11:00pm EST and midnight EST, as they jump on deals before they end.

As extreme weather hits some areas of the country, shoppers may be even more motivated to do their shopping from home. States that saw more than 2 inches of snow also saw a 7 percent boost in online sales, Adobe said.

Last year, Cyber Monday sales hit $7.9 billion.

This year, shoppers didn’t wait until Cyber Monday to start their online shopping. Retailers began sales in early November and lines were thin at stores on Black Friday as deals began on Thanksgiving Day.

Black Friday was predicted to be the busiest shopping day of the year in the U.S. for shoppers to head out to stores, but even on that day, people were loading up online shopping carts. Online spending hit a record of $5.4 billion, up 22.3 percent from a year ago, according to Adobe data Sunday night.