MILPITAS — Early on Cyber Monday, before many Bay Area residents had even reached for the phones they would be ordering from on the year’s biggest online shopping day, a local Amazon delivery station warehouse was already buzzing with activity.
Inside, hundreds of employees sorted Amazon packages coming in from all over the state, and arranged the bundles into dozens of towering straight-edge rows. Silver delivery vans lined up inside the warehouse with their hazard lights on and doors wide open as employees stuffed packages into the back.
Once the goods were secure, the drivers started their engines and filed out of the warehouse like ants on a trail, headed to the packages’ final destinations in Santa Clara County neighborhoods.
“It’s a very exciting time,” said Jae Garcia, a senior station delivery manager at Amazon’s Milpitas warehouse. “There’s a lot more congestion and chaos that comes with these high-volume events, and getting packages out to customers who are purchasing gifts for the holidays for family, loved ones and friends.”
Cyber Monday has become somewhat synonymous with the start of the holiday season. The days following Thanksgiving are a chance for millions of Americans to purchase household items, electronics and toys at a discounted price — all without ever leaving their laptops.
For Hercules resident Janaiah McClure, Cyber Monday means a chance to snag the best deals on clothes, tech and toys for her family, including three young kids.
“When you got small children, you can’t shop for all the deals in the store with such a busy schedule,” McClure said. “Its convenient and great to have access to such deals during the holiday season.”
On Monday consumers were expected spend a record $13.2 billion, according to Adobe Analytics, which tracks online shopping data. Online spending was expected to peak between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Monday night, reaching an estimated $15.7 million spent every minute.
“Discounts have exceeded expectations beginning on Thanksgiving, and Cyber Monday has essentially become ‘last call’ for shoppers looking to get the best deals this season,” Vivek Pandya, a lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights, said in a statement. “We are on track for a Cyber Week, the five-day period between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, that crosses the $40 billion mark online, and sets a new record for U.S. e-commerce.”
Cyber Monday sales are a weekend-long event for major retailers. Amazon kicked off its sales right after midnight Saturday, while Walmart opened discounted offers for Walmart+ members on Sunday afternoon before opening it up to all customers. Other retailers like Costco began offering its sales Monday morning.
At the Amazon delivery station in Milpitas, hundreds of thousands of packages can flow through the warehouse on Cyber Monday, which is twice the amount employees usually handle on an average work day, according to Garcia. The number of packages closely rivals the company’s Prime Days, which took place from Oct. 8 to 9 this year and was the biggest October shopping event in Amazon’s history.
“It tells us that customers continue to want deals, and continue to hunt them down when shopping,” said Natalie Banke, an Amazon PR manager.
Hot Cyber Monday sellers were expected to include electronics like televisions, Bluetooth headphones and speakers, digital cameras and smart watches. But it is also a popular time for skin care products, discounted apparel bikes, gift cards and jewelry.
The event is also when small business owners like McClure see an uptick in sales. McClure is co-founder of Jade&Kai, a Hercules-based business that sells baby clothes and essentials including pajamas, ponchos and crib sheets through Amazon. Jade&Kai’s inventory are stored in an Amazon warehouse, and employees will help package and ship orders all around the country to McClure’s customers.
More than 60% of sales in Amazon’s store come from independent sellers, many of whom are small and medium-sized businesses.
“It takes the headache out of running the business,” McClure said. “With hundreds or thousands of orders we would have to be packing ourselves during the busy holiday season, it’s amazing Amazon can take care of that.”
