NATE BURLESON:
00:00:00
The Black Friday sales beat expectations. Overall sales jumped more than 4%, with online spending hitting a record $11.8 billion. Now it's Cyber Monday, and analysts expect another big surge. MoneyWatch correspondent Kelly O'Grady is here So, Kelly, they were expecting that people would scale back, pull back this weekend. That wasn't the case. So why? And then, also, what do you expect today on Cyber Monday? So yet again, the holidays proved the thing that people are willing to spend on, even when confidence has been near a record low. That $11.8 billion that you mentioned, that was 9% up versus last year. So that's really strong. A couple of things drove that. One, people actually traded up to higher-ticket items, the data shows, because the discounts were so good. They felt like they were getting a good deal.
NATE BURLESON:
00:00:46
You talked about that. Yeah, right? People will be spending. The second thing is consumers were stretching themselves because buy now, pay later usage was also up 9%. And then finally, AI was a big driver. People used those chatbots I was talking about. Those links came up, and then that drove traffic over 800% versus last year from those AI sites. So that was a big factor this year. Cyber Monday, we're expecting another record. Lot of closed doors as people are shopping in their offices, right? $14.2 billion in sales is expected.
NATE BURLESON:
00:01:14
So you always give good advice. What should people do today to look for those deals? OK, it's all about electronics and tech. Check out the big retailers like Walmart, Best Buy, Amazon, Target. Also, check for some items that maybe you had in your cart because some places are going to offer even further discounts. And then, of course, it's not a deal unless you really need it, so make sure you can pay it off and, if you're using buy now, pay later, you hit those payment dates. That's the best advice. All right, Kelly, thank you.
