Ebay says Cyber Monday was its biggest sales day ever

Looks like this past Cyber Monday was a hit across the board. Earlier today, Amazon noted that the Black Friday weekend was its strongest yet, and now eBay’s one-upping the site by announcing that yesterday was the biggest sales day in the site’s 22-year history — a stat that includes both retail sales and auctions.

Like Amazon, eBay isn’t offering much in the way of hard numbers here, instead noting some fun facts, like “A tablet was sold every 7 seconds” and “A Star Wars item was sold every 6 seconds,” which are not particularly useful. What is interesting, however, is how the numbers point to the changing state of the site, which has transformed itself over the past couple of decades from the internet’s auction site to more of a retail storefront.

For many, eBay is still synonymous with bidding, but the company tells TechCrunch that auctions only comprise around 19 percent of the site’s sales in 2017. Ebay’s big Cyber Monday push this year was nothing if not a chance to flaunt that change to the public, as the company positioned itself alongside Amazon and Best Buy as a source for rock bottom pricing for things like electronics and shoes, a pair of which was apparently sold every second yesterday.

Another tidbit from the news: mobile purchases led the way on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, while more people were buying stuff through their desktop on Cyber Monday — no doubt pursuing the site at work.