Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2024: The Fastest and Slowest Websites

Holiday Shopping 2024: Black Friday and Cyber Monday Break Records, Mobile Takes the Lead, The Fastest and Slowest Websites

While the holiday shopping season often feels like it begins earlier and earlier, there's no denying that waiting until after Thanksgiving for shopping still holds strong for millions of consumers.

Despite efforts to extend the shopping window, Black Friday and Cyber Monday continue to dominate, with sales reaching record-breaking numbers this year. But amid the frenzy of discounts and deals, a clear shift in consumer behavior is emerging — one that centers around the power of mobile devices.

Black Friday Sets the Stage for a Strong Holiday Season

The holiday shopping window may have been tight this year, but Black Friday still proved to be a force to be reckoned with. Salesforce and Adobe both reported impressive gains in online spending. According to Adobe, online sales in the U.S. on Black Friday increased by 10.2% to $10.8 billion.

What's particularly striking is the speed at which consumers were shopping. Between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Black Friday alone, $11.3 million was spent online every single minute, a sign of just how fast e-commerce can happen.

Black Friday 2024: The Top 20 Fastest Websites

The 20 Fastest Retail and eCommerce Websites Ranked by Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)

Black Friday 2024: The Top 20 Slowest Websites

The 20 SlowestRetail and eCommerce Websites Ranked by Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)

Cyber Monday: Still the King of Online Shopping

Despite the push to spread out sales events, Cyber Monday remains the crown jewel of online shopping. This year, consumers spent a total of $13.3 billion on Cyber Monday, up 7.3% compared to last year, surpassing Adobe's initial projection of $13.2 billion.

From 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. that day, spending reached an incredible $15.8 million every minute, proving once again that Cyber Monday is the undisputed champion of online retail.

Even with Black Friday showing strong sales figures, Cyber Monday remains the biggest online shopping day of all time. With many consumers saving their biggest purchases for this final shopping day, e-commerce is gearing up for a banner year.

Cyber  Monday 2024: The Top 20 Fastest Websites

The 20 Fastest Retail and eCommerce Websites Ranked by Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)

Cyber  Monday 2024: The Top 20 Slowest Websites

The 20 Slowest Retail and eCommerce Websites Ranked by Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)

The Rise of Mobile Shopping: A New Era for E-commerce

One of the most notable trends in 2024's holiday shopping season is the rise of mobile shopping. According to Salesforce, mobile phones now account for a massive 70% of all e-commerce sales. Smartphones are leading the charge, with social platforms like TikTok Shop gaining traction and mobile apps making up a significant portion of e-commerce activity, emphasizing the need for brands to prioritize mobile optimization. Consumers are no longer simply browsing; they're shopping, purchasing, and completing transactions right from their phones and tablets.

What Does This Mean for Brands?

For e-commerce brands, the shift to mobile and the continued growth of holiday sales present both opportunities and challenges. Mobile shopping is now a dominant force, meaning optimizing the mobile shopping experience is more important than ever. Whether it's through responsive web design, easy navigation, or ensuring a frictionless checkout process, businesses must cater to the needs of mobile-first shoppers.

Additionally, the continued growth of social commerce through platforms like TikTok means that brands must adapt their marketing strategies to meet consumers where they are. Engaging influencers, creating shoppable content, and utilizing platform-specific features will be key to capturing the attention of today's mobile-savvy shoppers.

Looking Ahead: A Record-Breaking Season

As we head into the final stretch of the 2024 holiday season, one thing is clear: holiday e-commerce is here to stay. With both Black Friday and Cyber Monday posting impressive sales figures, it's evident that consumers are eager to spend, especially when it's easy and convenient. The rise of mobile shopping, coupled with an increasing reliance on smartphones and tablets, shows that the future of retail is firmly in the hands of consumers — and those consumers are increasingly on the go.

The message for brands is simple: adapt, innovate, and ensure your online shopping experience is ready for the mobile-first shopper. If these trends continue, 2024 could be a record-breaking year for e-commerce — and that's something for brands to cheer about.

Methodology for the fastest and slowest websites

This Black Friday and Cyber Monday, we are focusing on three performance and user experience indicators for the Digital Commerce 360 Top 1000 leading online retailers: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Onload, and Time to Interactive.

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) is a Core Web Vital measuring perceived load speed because it represents how quickly the main content of a webpage is loaded. To provide a frictionless experience and better business outcomes, sites should aim to have an LCP of 2.5 seconds or less. Looking at one study, for example, product pages can see a 40% to 50% lower conversion rate when comparing users that experience a 2-second LCP versus a 4 to 5-second LCP.
• Onload is the average time required for the server to load all content on a page completely—everything from JavaScript, CSS, images, and more. Removing friction by improving page load time has been shown to contribute to higher conversion rates and revenue. For one online business, friction costs nearly half a billion dollars annually.
• Time to Interactive (TTI) is the time it takes for a webpage to become fully interactive. When a site appears fully loaded but nothing happens when the user tries interacting with it, that can cause major user friction, resulting in revenue loss.

The reports are based on Home Page measurements collected by Blue Triangle.