Americans ordered a whole lot of stuff during the online shopping event known as Cyber Monday.
According to data from Adobe Analytics, which tracks activity and products across a large swath of US e-commerce, by the end of the day people had spent $7.9 billion online, topping last year’s record of $6.6 billion and marking the biggest online shopping day ever in the US.
Amazon, of course, claims a large share of those purchases. The e-commerce steamroller announced that it sold more items on Cyber Monday than any previous day in the company’s history, though it’s not clear if it sold more in dollar terms. The company wouldn’t give a spending figure when contacted.
Amazon did, however, reveal what shoppers bought most, which, as it turns out, was quite an eclectic list of items. It reads like a shopping list for things you might want with you if you were holed up to avoid the outside world for an extended period, and eager to stay entertained between bouts of comfort-cooking and pondering your identity. The top sellers were:
- Amazon’s Echo Dot, a device for use with Amazon’s voice-controlled, virtual assistant, Alexa
- Ancestry DNA kits, for genetically testing ethnicity
- Bose QuietComfort 25 Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones for Apple devices
- Becoming, the new memoir by former US first lady Michelle Obama
- Jenga. Yes, that Jenga, the nerve-wracking game where you stack wooden blocks in a tower and then pull them out one-by-one until the structure collapses.
- The six-quart Instant Pot DUO60, the electric multi-cooker that will make you everything from a pork shoulder to yogurt and has a passionate online fanbase
Toys were particularly popular. Amazon said customers worldwide ordered more than 18 million of them. While the struggling wreck that is Toys ‘R Us may be restored yet, the toy seller’s recent downfall has likely sent parents looking for other places to buy holiday gifts for their children.
Those gifts probably include Fingerlings, L.O.L Surprise, and Little Live Pets, which Adobe Analytics noted were among the most popular products Americans bought online on Cyber Monday. Rounding out its list of top sellers were laptops from Dell and Apple, TVs by LG, and the Nintendo Switch. Adults like their toys, too.