Cyber Monday shoppers were expected to set a record on the year’s biggest day for online shopping

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Even though e-commerce is now part and parcel of many people’s regular routines and the holiday shopping season, Cyber Monday—a term coined in 2005 by the National Retail Federation—has become the biggest online shopping day of the year, thanks to the deals and the hype the industry has created to fuel it. Adobe Analytics, which tracks online shopping, expected consumers to spend a record $13.2 billion on December 2 (Monday), 6.1% more than last year. That would make it the season’s—and the year’s—biggest shopping day for e-commerce. Online spending was expected to peak between the hours of 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. that Monday night, per Adobe—reaching an estimated $15.7 million spent every minute. For several major retailers, a Cyber Monday sale is a dayslong event that began over the Thanksgiving weekend. Consumer spending for Cyber Week—the five major shopping days between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday—provides a strong indication of how much shoppers are willing to spend for the holidays. At the same time, credit card debt and delinquencies have been rising. More shoppers than ever are also on track to use “buy now, pay later” plans this holiday season, which allows them to delay payments on holiday decor, gifts, and other items. Other data showed physical stores saw fewer customers on Black Friday, underscoring how the huge crowds that were once synonymous with the day after Thanksgiving are now more than happy to shop from the comfort of their homes. RetailNext, which measures real-time foot traffic in stores, reported that its early data showed store traffic on Black Friday was down 3.2% in the U.S. compared to last year, with the biggest dip happening in the Midwest. Jie Zhang, a marketing professor at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, told The Associated Press ahead of the post-Thanksgiving shopping weekend that he expected shoppers to “indulge themselves a bit more” when it comes to “self-gifting,” increasing interest in categories like self-care. This article was provided by The Associated Press.