Ralph D. Freso/Reuters
When it comes to holiday shopping, Cyber Monday is a winner.
- Wealthy people largely prefer shopping on Cyber Monday over Black Friday.
- Business Insider teamed with global technology company Morning Consult to conduct a nationwide survey of 2,300 American adults.
- The majority of respondents signaled their preference for Cyber Monday, with 58.2% saying they'd rather shop during the online retail event.
- Shoppers who earn over $100,000 a year showed the strongest preference for Cyber Monday.
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Wealthy people are shunning Black Friday in favor of Cyber Monday, and it's a trend that could have repercussions for the entire world of retail.
In order to glean retail insights on the holiday shopping season, Business Insider teamed up with global technology company Morning Consult to survey over 2,300 American adults about their shopping preferences. Of those survey participants, 56% earn an income below $50,000 a year, 31% earn between $50,000 and $100,000 a year, and 13% make over $100,000.
Business Insider and Morning Consult asked each participant whether they'd prefer to shop on Black Friday or Cyber Monday, if they could hypothetically participate in only one holiday shopping event. The survey responses indicate Cyber Monday's growing importance in the retail sector, as well as the aspirational nature of e-commerce.
The majority of respondents signaled their preference for Cyber Monday, with 58.2% of participants selecting the online shopping event, compared to 41.8% pro-Black Friday shoppers.
For respondents making less than $50,000 a year, Black Friday earned votes from 46.1% of respondents, compared to 53.9% of participants who preferred Cyber Monday. And the preference for Cyber Monday only became more pronounced for consumers with higher incomes.
For people bringing home between $50,000 and $100,000 a year, 37.7% of respondents said they're prefer Black Friday, against 62.3% of participants who rather shop on Cyber Monday.
Shoppers who earn over $100,000 a year showed the strongest preference for Cyber Monday, with 64.1% of respondents from that demographic preferring the e-commerce event. That's compared to just 35.9% of the wealthiest tier of participants who said they'd rather check out Black Friday.
Shayanne Gal/Business Insider
Wealthy shoppers tend to prefer Cyber Monday.
The latest numbers from Adobe Analytics, which took into account one trillion visits to retail locations, also highlight the increasing dominance of Cyber Monday.
"Online shopping received some unexpected boosts this holiday season," Adobe Digital Insights' principal analyst Taylor Schreiner said in a statement on Monday. "Just look at Black Friday, which brought in $7.4 billion online and is just below last year's Cyber Monday at $7.9 billion. Consumers are reimagining what it means to shop during the holidays, with smartphones having a breakout season as well. We expect that consumers will spend $14 billion more this holiday season via their phones."
Adobe Analytics found that Cyber Monday is on track to generate a record-breaking $9.4 billion this year, a 18.9% jump from last year. As of 9 a.m. ET, the tech company estimated that Americans had already spent $473 million on Cyber Monday.
The numbers from the survey that Morning Consult and Business Insider ran seem to indicate that not only is Cyber Monday increasingly important to the world of retail, it's also becoming a more aspirational event for shoppers. In years past, media coverage of Black Friday has been accused of taking on classist and racist tones and of shaming low-income shoppers.
The fact that a preference for shopping on Cyber Monday over Black Friday appears to rise alongside annual income seems to show that relying on e-commerce for holiday shopping is a status symbol.