Cyber Monday stories
Cyber Weekend spending of AUD $6.8 billion shows retail's strength, but AI-powered scams mean cyber readiness is now a peak-season necessity.
Avast flags 430,000 blocked visits to fake online shops in Australia, warning scam “ghost stores” will surge over summer sales and Christmas.
Australia Post teams with The ICONIC and Oz Hair and Beauty, offering AUD $10 rewards to steer online shoppers towards Parcel Lockers.
US holiday online sales hit a record USD $257.8 billion as shoppers shifted to mobiles, Buy Now Pay Later and generative AI search tools.
Black Friday splurge triggers record December returns surge as ReBound warns rapid send-backs are straining retailers' peak operations.
AI agents, circular retail and tighter rules will upend shopping by 2026, Akeneo warns, as poor product data threatens brand visibility.
AI is transforming loyalty from points to real-time, personalised journeys as super apps and agentic engagement engines rapidly take hold.
Australians are reshaping Boxing Day, prioritising essentials, thrift and online safety over impulse spending amid cost-of-living strain.
Social media fuelled a Black Friday boom in the UK, as Rithum data showed global social sales soaring 152% and online spend up 27%.
Record Black Friday online sales risk hollowing out profits as soaring returns, refunds and BNPL queries squeeze retailers' margins.
Patchworks data operations jumped over 320% year on year as retailers stretched BFCM 2025 into a longer, more complex multichannel peak.
Infobip logs 12.2 billion Cyber Week interactions as retailers drive a 277% Black Friday surge in rich messaging such as RCS and WhatsApp.
UK saw the highest global Black Friday growth at 16%, driven by loyalty spend, AI tools, and personalised retail experiences, outpacing US and ANZ markets.
Brands boosted Black Friday and Cyber Monday revenue by 38% year-on-year through varied creative ads, despite only a 13% rise in ad spend, analysis shows.
Black Friday searches hit 33.5bn, with pet products surging 81% and shoppers favouring value, wellness, and early deals over luxury goods this year.
Cyber Monday online orders in the UK surged, running about 70% higher than Black Friday as shoppers held out for last-minute deals.
AI now underpins most UK Christmas campaigns, as 78% of marketers use it to deliver more personalised festive ads amid rising consumer demands.
Online marketplaces now dominate UK high-value shopping journeys, as brands risk invisibility without strong, optimised product data.
ASOS's GBP £130m stock write-off shows AI gloss cannot mask a broken ERP, as messy data turns clever tools into costly liabilities.
UK Black Friday footfall fell 3% year-on-year as shoppers sought better deals amid cost-of-living worries, despite a 54.9% rise from the prior week.