*

Online promotions follow mixed start to holiday season so

far

*

Spending online Monday in the US reaches $13.3 bln, Adobe

says

*

Technology like chatbots can engage shoppers, boosting

sales

*

'Buy now, pay later' services hit $991 million in spending

*

Consumers spent 7.3% more than Cyber Monday 2023

By Aishwarya Venugopal, Arriana McLymore

Dec 2 (Reuters) -

Americans spent $13.3 billion online on Monday in the United

States, according to an Adobe report, as consumers nabbed steep

holiday discounts on everything from electronics to toys

following lackluster demand at U.S. stores

on Black Friday

.

Consumers spent 7.3% more compared to Cyber Monday in 2023.

That follows the roughly $10.8 billion Americans spent online on

Black Friday this year, according to Adobe, which keeps track of

devices that use its software to help power more than 1 trillion

visits to U.S. retail sites.

Retailers have been coaxing cautious U.S. shoppers on Cyber

Monday - traditionally America's biggest internet shopping day -

with push notifications, emails and other ads touting heavily

discounted cosmetics, electronics, toys, clothing and other

products.

With just 23 days before Christmas, the discounts this year

have been deeper, with shoppers waiting for promotion-heavy

days, experts have said. For instance, Target ( TGT ) said it

was offering 50% off thousands of items including video games,

home decor and other technology items with a "two-day Cyber

Monday" sale that started on Sunday.

The moves follow a mixed holiday season so far, with muted

spending in stores on key shopping days such as Black

Friday. Sales at brick-and-mortar stores on Friday grew just

0.7% year over year, according to preliminary estimates by

payments processor Mastercard ( MA ). Meanwhile, data firm Facteus said

sales were actually lower.

Online, retailers like Walmart ( WMT ) and Amazon ( AMZN )

have relied on generative AI customer service and search

features to make it easier for shoppers to find products on

websites and mobile apps.

Pittsburgh resident Cheyenne Berens, 29, has been using Amazon's ( AMZN )

generative AI chatbot Rufus to track prices of baby merchandise

and electronics this holiday season. Amazon ( AMZN ) launched Rufus in

February to give customers product recommendations and details

based on its entire catalog of merchandise.

"I have found that using Rufus on Amazon ( AMZN ) has been extremely

helpful in determining whether a 'deal' is actually a 'deal',"

Berens said. She's been tracking the fluctuating prices of a

Pack 'n' Play portable playpen and waiting for the right time to

buy. The price started at $90 before the holidays, briefly rose

to $120 and dropped back to $90, she said.

Caila Schwartz, director of consumer insights at Salesforce ( CRM ),

a cloud-computing company that tracks global shopping data from

more than 1.5 billion consumers, said that GenAI tools such as

chatbots to answer online shoppers' basic questions, such as

queries about products, helped retailers protect their profit

margins despite rising costs.

On Saturday, retailers using GenAI tools for customer

service saw a 15% higher purchase rate by users, according to

estimates by Salesforce ( CRM ). Schwartz said the higher so-called

conversion rate "is a game changer."

Preliminary estimates from Adobe forecast U.S. consumer

spending online to be between $13.2 billion to $13.5 billion on

Monday.

On Cyber Monday, traffic to retail sites from chatbots or

shoppers clicking on a link to a website rose 1,950% from Black

Friday through the weekend, Adobe said.

With many Americans recently carrying more debt, many are using

third-party "buy now, pay later" services, with spending on the

services reaching $991 million, according Adobe.