Amazon (AMZN) and other e-commerce stocks rose Monday on reports of strong consumer spending for Black Friday and the start of the holiday shopping season. Amazon stock closed higher on Cyber Monday, along with Shopify (SHOP), Etsy (ETSY) and MercadoLibre (MELI).
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Online shoppers spent a record $9.8 billion on Black Friday, according to Adobe Analytics. That surpassed the company’s forecasts of $9.6 billion and marked a 7.5% increase from last year. U.S. retail sales for both online and in-store rose 2.5% from last year’s Black Friday, according to Mastercard SpendingPulse.
Adobe Analytics raised its forecast for Cyber Monday sales. The company expects consumers to spend up to $12.4 billion for the day.
Meanwhile, BofA Global Research analyst Justin Post said the “solid” Black Friday numbers indicate headwinds for online shopping from the return of in-person activities could be fading.
“We view Black Friday online sales data points as generally constructive, though there is always a risk that December sales were pulled forward by promotions,” Post wrote in a client note Monday.
Shopify Sees Black Friday Boost
Meanwhile, SHOP stock rose 4.9% to 73.79 on the stock market today. The company said merchants using its platform saw a record $4.1 billion in Black Friday sales. Sales through Shopify jumped 22% compared to the same day last year, according to the company news release.
Shopify President Harley Finkelstein said the numbers show “another epic, record-breaking Black Friday in the books for Shopify merchants.”
The bestselling categories were clothing, personal care items and jewelry, according to the company.
“We expect a positive market reaction with the pace of sales tracking ahead of consensus 4Q gross merchandise volume growth expectations (of about 17% year over year), and cautious retail sentiment into the holiday season,” wrote Oppenheimer analyst Kenneth Wong in a client note Monday.
Amazon Stock: Cyber Monday Deals
Amazon has yet to release data on its weekend sales. The company’s Black Friday strategy this year included a first-ever Friday National Football League broadcast on Prime Video.
For Cyber Monday, Amazon said it will continue regular deal “drops” throughout the day.
Amazon posted a year-over-year decline in e-commerce sales for the fourth quarter of 2022. This year, Wedbush analyst Scott Devitt is projecting Amazon’s fourth-quarter online stores sales will grow 6.5% annually. Devitt wrote in a client note Monday that “we continue to view (the sales gain) as achievable given the range of industry estimates for e-commerce spending this holiday season and early results through Black Friday.”
AMZN stock gained just under 1% to close at 147.73 Monday.
Boost for BNPL
Notably, more shoppers this year were using “buy now pay later” options. Spending through so-called BNPL options rose 20% year over year on Saturday and Sunday, according to Adobe Analytics. BNPL spending is expected to rise nearly 19% to $782 million on Cyber Monday, by Adobe’s estimates.
BNPL provider Affirm (AFRM) jumped 12% in trading Monday to 29.37.
Further, online payments giant PayPal‘s (PYPL) stock gained about 1.1% Monday to close at 56.39.
Etsy gained 3% and Wayfair (W) closed up by 7%.
Latin American-focused MercadoLibre (MELI) said it set a Black Friday sales record. Additionally, sales are pacing ahead of last November’s total by 39%, the company said. MELI stock gained 4% to 1,599.21, adding to a recent run of gains for the so-called Amazon of Latin America.
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