Tag: Cyber Monday

Disney Pulls Out the Stops on Cyber Monday Discounts

Disney Dec. 2 (Cyber Monday) is offering myriad one-day pricing discounts for its branded Disney+ subscription streaming service and separate Hulu platform.

The company is taking $10 off the annual $69.99 fee, dropping the monthly fee to $4.99 from the standard $6.99 rate.

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Disney is also extending for one more day a special $1.99 monthly fee for Hulu, based on a 12-month subscription. The special pricing applies only to the $5.99 plan with advertising. Hulu has a separate $11.99 plan without commercials. The deals are only good in the United States and Puerto Rico.

Consumers spent a record $7.9 billion on Cyber Monday e-commerce transactions in 2018.

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Hulu Bows $1.99 Monthly Black Friday Service Special

Hulu, Disney’s majority-owned subscription video-on-demand platform, is offering its basic streaming service with ads for $1.99 monthly for a year. The offer, which ends Dec. 2 (Cyber Monday), then converts to $5.99 monthly after 12 months. The company also offers a $11.99 monthly ad-free option.

Hulu, which at one time was co-owned by 20th Century Fox, Comcast, Time Warner and Disney, is now wholly owned by Disney following the Magical Kingdom’s purchase of Fox and buy-out of Comcast’s stake.

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The service had almost 27 million subscribers as of May 1, which was up from 25 million in the previous-year period and 15 million in 2016.

Rival Netflix ended the most-recent fiscal period with nearly 61 million domestic subscribers.

Disney also offers Hulu with ESPN+ and Disney+ for $12.99 monthly.

Adobe: Strong November Holiday Sales Portend Robust Winter Retail Season

With the winter retail season about to start, new data from Adobe Analytics suggests some big-box stores will score big through Christmas — based on analysis of more than a trillion visits to over 4,500 retail sites.

Adobe said winter retails sales from Nov. 1 to Nov. 26 increased 15% to $143.7 million compared to the previous-year period.

The software company projects November-December retail sales will increase 3.8% to 5% — up from 2.1% last year. Cyber Monday (e-commerce) is projected to generate $9.4 billion in revenue.

“With the shorter shopping season and retailers starting their promotions earlier, Adobe is seeing holiday discounts already well underway even before Thanksgiving day,” Jason Woosley, VP of commerce, said in a statement.

Top retailers over the holiday season include Target, Walmart, Best Buy and Amazon due in large part to their e-commerce platforms.

Cyber Monday Projected to Set All-Time Sales Record — Despite New Tax Rules

With e-commerce booming year-round, Cyber Monday (Nov. 26), the annual winter retail event closing the Black Friday weekend, is projected to generated $7.8 billion in online sales – 18% above last year’s record tally of $6.6 billion, according to Adobe Analytics.

The figure follows record online spending on Black Friday when consumers spent $2.6 billion the day after Thanksgiving – up 24% from $2.09 billion last year.

Notably, Black Friday and Cyber Monday flourished despite the fact major retailers such as Walmart and Amazon touted online specials ahead of the annual retail event.

More importantly, online sales increased as about 30 states are in the process of implementing taxes for online purchases following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June that found the state of South Dakota could force online retailers such as Wayfair and Amazon to charge sales tax even if the companies do not have a physical presence in the state.

The change meant online shoppers could expect to pay upwards 8% more for e-commerce purchases depending where they live.

“If you’re an online shopper looking to avoid paying sales taxes, that’s about to change,” said Julia La Roche with Yahoo! Finance, who added she doesn’t expect sales tax to put a damper on ecommerce going forward.

“People are still going to shop online [for the convenience],” La Roche said.

Amazon closed Nov. 26 up more than 5% at $1,581.33 per share.