Cyber Monday Shopping Guide
In November 2005, a National Retail Federation marketer named Ellen Davis noticed something odd in the sales data, online spending spiked every year on the Monday after Thanksgiving, right when workers got back to their office internet connections. She gave that Monday a name in a press release, and Cyber Monday sales that first year came to $484 million.
Cyber Monday sales hit an estimated $14.25 billion in 2025, per Adobe Analytics, nearly 30 times the original figure 2 decades later. This guide covers where the day actually came from, when it lands each year, how it fits into the wider “Cyber Five” stretch, and how to shop it well. For the exact current year spending numbers and category discount depths, see our Black Friday and Cyber Week data guide.
Current Cyber Monday offers are always live on CouponZania.
- Cyber Monday always falls on the Monday after Thanksgiving, a fixed, predictable date. It’s November 30 in 2026.
- The day was invented, not organic. The National Retail Federation coined the term in 2005 after noticing online sales spiked every year on that specific Monday.
- Sales have grown roughly 30 times over since 2005, from $484 million to an estimated $14.25 billion in 2025.
- Cyber Monday is part of a longer “Cyber Five” stretch, Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Sofa Sunday, and Cyber Monday itself.
- Peak shopping hour actually shifted in 2025, from a midday peak in 2024 to a 9pm peak, real evidence that shopping behavior keeps changing even for an established event.
Why Cyber Monday Exists in the First Place
Cyber Monday isn’t an organic tradition the way Black Friday grew out of post Thanksgiving crowds, it was named deliberately. The National Retail Federation’s Ellen Davis coined the term in a November 28, 2005 press release, after retailers noticed a recurring spike in online sales and site traffic on the Monday right after Thanksgiving weekend.
The theory at the time was simple, home internet in 2005 was slow for a lot of households, but workplace connections were fast. Employees back at their desks that Monday, away from family and with a faster connection, made online holiday shopping more practical than doing it from home over the weekend, and retailers noticed that pattern showing up reliably enough in their own sales data to name it and market around it deliberately.
When Is Cyber Monday, Every Year
Cyber Monday always falls on the Monday immediately following Thanksgiving, which in the US always lands on the 4th Thursday of November. That makes Cyber Monday’s date genuinely predictable years in advance, unlike an event such as Amazon Prime Day, which has shifted calendar placement entirely in recent years.
In 2026, that puts Cyber Monday on November 30, following Thanksgiving on November 26 and Black Friday on November 27. The formula holds every year, count to the 4th Thursday of November, then forward 4 more days to the following Monday, which means the exact calendar date shifts from year to year even though the underlying pattern never does.
How Cyber Monday Sales Have Grown Since 2005
Cyber Monday US online sales by year, Adobe Analytics and third party historical aggregation. Checked August 2026.
Cyber Monday crossed $1 billion in sales for the first time in 2010, then grew roughly 8 times over the following decade to $10.8 billion by 2020. Growth has slowed since, low single digit to high single digit percentage gains each year rather than the 20% to 30% annual jumps common in the event’s first decade, a pattern typical of a maturing rather than emerging shopping event, similar to what’s happened with Amazon Prime Day’s own year over year growth rate more recently.
The “Cyber Five”: Where Cyber Monday Actually Fits
Cyber Monday isn’t really a standalone event anymore, it’s the closing day of a 5 day stretch retailers call the Cyber Five, or Cyber Week when the promotional period extends further. The other 4 days each carry their own identity and shopping pattern.
Thanksgiving Thursday
Now a genuine online shopping day in its own right, not just a lead in to Friday, as more retailers launch deals before stores even close for the holiday.
Black Friday
The original event, now a mix of in store doorbusters and heavy online sales, with online spending increasingly the larger share.
Small Business Saturday
Focused specifically on independent and local businesses rather than large retailers, a deliberate counterpoint to the 2 days before it.
“Sofa Sunday”
An informal, lower key browsing day, shoppers comparing what they’ve seen so far from home before the week’s final push.
Cyber Monday
The stretch’s traditional finale, still where many retailers place their deepest tech and electronics discounts specifically.
How Cyber Monday Actually Differs From Black Friday
Black Friday started as a physical, in store event, doorbusters, early morning lines, limited in store stock, and has only become predominantly online over the past decade. Cyber Monday was online only from its very first year by design, built specifically around the online shopping behavior the NRF had observed, not retrofitted onto an older tradition.
That origin still shapes the category mix somewhat. Electronics and tech have traditionally carried Cyber Monday’s deepest discounts specifically, a legacy of the day’s original association with online bound, tech comfortable shoppers, though the gap with Black Friday’s own category mix has narrowed as both days have converged into an online first, multi category shopping period. Retailers themselves increasingly treat the 2 days as one continuous promotional stretch internally, even while marketing them to shoppers as distinct events with their own separate identity.
Is Cyber Monday a Global Event Now?
Cyber Monday started as a US only concept, but has spread well beyond it since. Canada adopted it in 2008, with roughly 80% of Canadian online retailers participating by 2011, and awareness now sits at an estimated 86% among Canadian shoppers, second only to the US itself at around 94%.
The UK, Spain, and Germany each report roughly 77% consumer awareness, and Australia sits around 64%, where retailers launched their own branded version, called Click Frenzy, in 2012 rather than adopting the American name directly. None of these countries celebrate the American Thanksgiving holiday Cyber Monday is technically timed around, the date stuck as a shopping event on its own merits regardless.
| Country | Consumer Awareness | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| United States | ~94% | Origin country, 2005 |
| Canada | ~86% | Adopted 2008, ~80% of online retailers participate |
| UK | ~77% | Tied with Spain and Germany |
| Spain | ~77% | Tied with UK and Germany |
| Germany | ~77% | Tied with UK and Spain |
| Australia | ~64% | Own branded version, “Click Frenzy,” launched 2012 |
Consumer awareness of Cyber Monday by country, third party survey data. Checked August 2026.
The Scam Angle Specific to Cyber Monday: Fake Delivery Texts
Our Black Friday guide covers the fake retailer domains that spike before the sale, Cyber Monday’s biggest scam risk shows up slightly differently, after checkout. Smishing, fake text messages about a “missed delivery” or “package on hold,” has been flagged as a fast growing threat by the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center since 2021, and it spikes hard specifically during Cyber Week when real delivery notifications are already flooding people’s phones.
SMS based shopping fraud increased nearly 35% in a single quarter heading into the most recent Cyber Monday season, and 2025 marked a real turning point, the majority of scams shoppers encountered were AI generated for the first time, making them harder to distinguish from a genuine order update than in past years.
When People Actually Shop During Cyber Monday
Shopping behavior within the day itself keeps shifting, even for an event this established. In 2025, transaction volume peaked around 9pm CST, a real change from 2024’s peak, which landed closer to midday. At the event’s busiest point in 2025, Americans were reportedly spending around $16 million a minute, a pace that would add up to roughly $960 million an hour if it held steady, which it doesn’t across the full day.
More Traffic on Mobile, But Desktop Still Converts Better
Mobile devices drove roughly 70% of Cyber Monday orders in 2025, with mobile spend hitting $8.2 billion, up 8% year over year, and 51% of shoppers say they prefer using a smartphone specifically over a desktop or laptop. That’s a genuinely different split from what conversion data actually shows though.
Desktop shoppers converted at 7.0%, compared to 4.6% for mobile shoppers, meaning a desktop visitor is meaningfully more likely to actually complete a purchase than a mobile one browsing the same deals. More people shop on their phone, but more of the people who buy on a computer.
Mobile vs desktop behavior, most recently completed Cyber Monday. Third party ecommerce analytics, checked August 2026.
Buy now, pay later leans even harder toward mobile than regular purchases do, 79.4% of Cyber Monday BNPL transactions happened on a phone rather than a desktop in 2025. That’s a notably higher mobile share than overall order volume, suggesting the shoppers reaching for installment payment plans specifically skew toward browsing and buying on their phone.
How Many Retailers Actually Run Cyber Monday Deals
An estimated 90% of the top 50 online retailers offered Cyber Monday discounts in 2025, and roughly 63% of shoppers said they planned to participate in the day specifically. Reported average discount depth held flat year over year at around 22%, with average promo value rising to roughly $128.
Worth knowing, discount percentage figures vary noticeably by methodology, some sources compare against the regular listed price, others against MSRP or basket level averages, which is exactly why different Cyber Monday statistics articles sometimes cite meaningfully different average discount numbers for the same year. Neither figure is necessarily wrong, they’re just measuring the discount against a different baseline price entirely.
Cyber Monday’s Lesser Known Cousin: Green Monday
Cyber Monday isn’t the only branded “Monday” on the holiday shopping calendar. eBay coined a second one, Green Monday, in 2007, the 2nd Monday of December, at least 10 shipping days out from Christmas.
The underlying pattern is similar to Cyber Monday’s own origin, a real recurring spike in online sales tied to a specific calendar Monday, this time driven by shipping deadline anxiety rather than workplace internet access. It’s genuinely a separate day worth knowing about if you’re shopping for Christmas gifts specifically and Cyber Monday’s deals didn’t cover everything on your list, and it’s easy to confuse the 2 given how similar the branding sounds.
How to Actually Shop Cyber Monday Well
- Treat it as the last day of a 5 day stretch, not an isolated event. A deal you missed on Black Friday sometimes reappears, or gets beaten, by Cyber Monday specifically on tech and electronics.
- Verify the discount against real price history, not just the percentage badge shown, the same rule that matters for Black Friday applies here too.
- Since it’s online only by nature, comparison shopping across retailers costs nothing but a few extra tabs, there’s no physical store to commit to just by walking in.
- Layer a stackable coupon code where one exists, sale pricing and a separate code aren’t always mutually exclusive, check current offers before checkout.
- Watch for scam sites specifically, they spike hard every November, stick to retailer domains you already recognize rather than following an unfamiliar link from an ad or email.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is Cyber Monday 2026?
Cyber Monday 2026 falls on November 30, the Monday after Thanksgiving on November 26 and Black Friday on November 27. The date follows a fixed formula every year, the Monday right after the 4th Thursday of November.
Who invented Cyber Monday and why?
The National Retail Federation’s Ellen Davis coined the term in a November 28, 2005 press release, after retailers noticed a recurring spike in online sales on the Monday following Thanksgiving. The theory was that shoppers returning to faster workplace internet connections drove the spike.
How much have Cyber Monday sales grown since it started?
Roughly 30 times over, from $484 million in 2005 to an estimated $14.25 billion in 2025, per Adobe Analytics and third party historical tracking. Growth was fastest in the event’s first decade and has slowed to single digit annual percentage gains more recently.
What is the “Cyber Five”?
The Cyber Five is the 5 day shopping stretch from Thanksgiving Thursday through Cyber Monday, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, an informal “Sofa Sunday,” and Cyber Monday itself. Retailers increasingly extend deals across the full week following it too, sometimes called Cyber Week.
Is Cyber Monday better than Black Friday for deals?
It depends on the category. Cyber Monday has traditionally carried the deepest discounts on electronics and tech specifically, a legacy of the day’s online only origin, while Black Friday’s category mix has historically skewed broader, though the gap has narrowed as both days converge into an online first shopping period.
What time of day do Cyber Monday deals actually peak?
It varies by year, which is itself worth knowing. Transaction volume peaked around 9pm CST in 2025, a real shift from 2024’s midday peak, so checking prices at multiple points during the day beats assuming one fixed “best time.”
Is Cyber Monday shopping mostly done on mobile or desktop?
By volume, mobile, roughly 70% of orders in 2025. But desktop shoppers actually convert at a higher rate, 7.0% versus 4.6% for mobile, meaning more people browse on their phone while more purchases per visit still happen on a computer.
Do most online retailers actually offer Cyber Monday deals?
Yes, an estimated 90% of the top 50 online retailers offered Cyber Monday discounts in 2025, and roughly 63% of shoppers said they planned to participate in the day specifically.
Is Cyber Monday celebrated outside the United States?
Yes, widely. Canada adopted it in 2008 and now has around 86% consumer awareness, the UK, Spain, and Germany each sit around 77%, and Australia around 64% with its own branded version called Click Frenzy, even though none of these countries celebrate the American Thanksgiving holiday the date is technically timed around.
What’s the biggest scam risk during Cyber Monday specifically?
Fake delivery text messages, known as smishing, spike hard during Cyber Week specifically since real delivery notifications are already flooding people’s phones from legitimate purchases. SMS based shopping fraud increased nearly 35% in a single quarter heading into the most recent season, and most scams shoppers encountered were AI generated for the first time in 2025.
Does buy now, pay later get used a lot on Cyber Monday?
Yes, BNPL crossed $1 billion in a single day for the first time ever on Cyber Monday 2025, per Adobe Analytics. Mobile drove the large majority of that, 79.4% of BNPL transactions happened on a phone rather than a desktop.
Is Cyber Monday growth slowing down?
Yes, relative to its early years. Growth ran 20% to 30% annually through much of the 2010s, but has settled into single digit percentage gains more recently, a pattern typical of an event maturing rather than one still expanding rapidly.
What is Green Monday, and is it different from Cyber Monday?
Green Monday is a separate shopping day, coined by eBay in 2007, that falls on the 2nd Monday of December, at least 10 shipping days before Christmas. It’s driven by shipping deadline anxiety rather than Cyber Monday’s original workplace internet story, and it’s worth knowing about separately if Christmas gift shopping specifically is your goal.
