Cyber Monday Brings Consumers Online

Kristen Gall Rakuten President discusses the success of Black Friday and what to look out for when it comes to Cyber Monday deals.

Video Transcript

- Let's bring in Kristin Gall. She is Rakuten president, joining us now because we're seeing some trends that-- I hate the term, "the new normal," So let's just say, here to stay and not going back. What's the biggest of those trends? And welcome to the program.

KRISTEN GALL: Thank you so much. Happy Cyber Monday to you both. It is indeed an unprecedented Cyber Monday. It could potentially be the biggest online shopping day that we've ever seen in our lives. There are some interesting trends that are happening. We've actually seen trends that started in the beginning of COVID that are really continuing into this Cyber Monday. So the world of you being at home and the world of what you need at home was how consumers were shopping over the summer.

And in terms of what that looks like right now, that looks like the same categories that have been trending up, really all fall. So electronics are huge. We're seeing a huge uptick in people buying laptops and air pods. Gaming has been tremendous. Walmart keeps releasing inventory in Xboxes and it nearly crashes their site every single time. Toys has had a double-digit upswing. LEGO has had to actually throttle the traffic to their site because it's been so popular this year.

And then in terms of apparel, you know, we've seen a mixed bag in department stores and luxury retailers. And the people who are really winning are companies that are selling athleisure and sneakers. So the Nikes and the Adidas of the world, Lululemon, we're really seeing-- you know, the tastes of America are changing right now in terms of what they need. And we're seeing, you know, retailers respond to that. But the winners are really-- it's the sort of more pandemic-appropriate retailers.

- So we keep hearing that, you know, it's the biggest Cyber Monday and Black Friday. And, like, obviously it is. Right? This number gets bigger every year and now we're in a pandemic and people aren't going shopping. So this number, of course was always going to be big.

What I'm trying to figure out and slice at a little bit mole is, what is the marginal increase do you think? I mean, look, if we didn't have the pandemic, we knew this was already going to be the biggest online shopping day, because every year we keep adding. So what is the marginal increase you think that we're seeing?

KRISTEN GALL: I mean, I would say it's upwards of 50% to 70% in some cases. I think, you know, based on what we would have forecast before, we would have probably ticked up Cyber Monday by about 20%. It's going to be significantly larger than that. And obviously we're still kind of in the middle of it.

But, you know, in general it's two things. It's people are still buying their gifts online, and the people who normally would have bought them in stores are buying them online as well. And then it's still, our day to day necessities are being bought online also. So, you know, pet companies, Petco, Chewy, all of those sort of pet-oriented retailers are also having a huge spike in traffic as well. Because you still have your necessities that you need to buy. Marketplaces are still super important. So Target and Walmart, you know, 100% winning. But it's the amalgamation of all of those things. Your necessities and your gifts are all being bought online that are really contributing.

- Are you surprised by the fact that-- I think you pointed out, there's been a surge in purchases of sneakers. You'd expect the electronics, but beauty supply stuff. It's not as if-- I mean, guys on stream wear makeup. Guys who walk the street wear makeup these days. But who's wearing makeup, because no one's going to the office, right?

KRISTEN GALL: I mean, the interesting thing that we've seen is that we've seen an uptick in, you know, things that you use to take care of yourself and, you know, pampering yourself at home. You're not traveling. You're not going out to dinner.

So, you know, I mean, I know in, you know, war-time England sales of lipstick went up significantly. I kind of liken it to that, where it's like a little thing that you can do for yourself to make you feel better. We've seen a lot of beauty brands really, really doing very well. Brands like Glossier who-- they were already swinging up in the market already and they've had double to triple-digit increases. And then big retailers like Ulta and Sephora are doing well too.

So I do think there's this notion of pampering yourself, pampering the people that you're buying gifts for. You know, it's something that you can do at home to make yourself feel a little bit better.

- We wish you a happy Cyber Monday and go shop. And we want to thank you for joining us, Kristin Gall, Rakuten president.

KRISTEN GALL: Thank you.

- Good to have you here.