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Deals promoted as some of the best of the holiday season are expected to keep people across the United States glued to their computers and smartphones as the post-Thanksgiving shopping marathon wraps up on Cyber Monday.It’s no secret that buying things online is now a staple of many people’s everyday routines. And year after year, those purchases mount during the gift-giving holiday rush. Experts expect consumers to drive record Cyber Monday spending this year, even amid wider economic uncertainty.Adobe Analytics has estimated that U.S. shoppers will spend $14.2 billion online Monday, or 6.3% more than in 2024. They already spent $11.8 billion online for Black Friday and another $6.4 billion on Thanksgiving Day, exceeding Adobe’s forecasts.Consumer spending for Cyber Week the five major shopping days between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday provides a strong indication of how much shoppers are willing to spend for the holidays.“Cyber Week is off to a strong start,” Vivek Pandya, lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights, said. “Discounts are set to remain elevated through Cyber Monday, which we expect will remain the biggest online shopping day of the season and year.”Deals on electronics and apparel are poised to peak Monday at 30% and 26% off average listed prices, per Adobe’s latest estimates.While the amount of money going into online shopping carts is expected to reach new heights as consumers try to get the biggest bangs for their bucks while they can, rising retail prices also may contribute to any record sales figures that materialize.Businesses and households have watched anxiously for financial impacts from U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on foreign imports. Workers in both the public and private sectors are also struggling with anxieties over job security amid both corporate layoffs and the after-effects of the 43-day government shutdown.For the November-December holiday season overall, the National Retail Federation estimates that U.S. shoppers will spend more than $1 trillion for the first time this year. But the rate of growth is slowing with an anticipated increase of 3.7% to 4.2% year over year, compared to 4.3% during last year’s holiday season.At the same time, credit card debt and delinquencies on other short-term loans have been rising. More and more shoppers are turning to “buy now, pay later” plans, which allow them to delay payments on holiday decor, gifts and other items.Buy now, pay later loans are expected to drive $20.2 billion in online spending this holiday season, according to Adobe, up 11% from last year. The firm predicted that buy now, pay later loans would pass a new $1 billion milestone on Cyber Monday, the vast majority involving purchases made on mobile devices.Overall, mobile devices have become the dominant shopping platform consumers are turning to for the holidays. Adobe expects smartphones, wearable tech and other handheld electronics to account for 56.1% of online spending this season, worth a total of $142.7 billion.Five years ago, a majority of online purchases were made on desktops.Shopping services powered by artificial intelligence are also expected to play a role in what consumers choose to buy. Software company Salesforce estimated that AI asssitants and digital agents contributed to $14.2 billion of the total $79 billion it said was spent online worldwide on Black Friday.Cyber Monday’s “hot sellers” will include gaming consoles such as the Nintendo Switch 2 and toys-turned-fashion statements like Labubu Dolls, Adobe said. The analystics firm anticipates the newest editions of popular consumer electronics including the iPhone 17, Google Pixel 10 and Samsung Galaxy S25 will also see high demand.To many, Cyber Monday is billed as the “last call” to take advantage of the deepest discounts in the days following Thanksgiving. But its reach has grown over the years.Cyber Monday is two decades old now, dating back to when the National Retail Federation first coined the term in 2005. Today, sales continue to bubble up throughout the week riding on the hype that the industry has built to fuel consumer spending. Wyatte Grantham-Philips, AP Business Writer
Category:
E-Commerce
The Koss Porta Pro headphones are one of the most iconic and popular designs in the history of audio equipment. The headphones were first released in 1984 in response to the rise of the Sony Walkman and aimed to translate the companys audio prowess into a portable, affordable form factor. The results were unmistakably odd. The collapsible headband, blue driver housings and striking shape meant you could spot them from a mile away. But Koss managed to deliver its trademark warm, bassy sound signature into an accessible product, and its retro-futuristic industrial design has never quite gone out of style. [Photo: Wikimedia] Koss, which is still a family-run business headquartered in Milwaukee, sold the Porta Pro virtually unchanged for decades. At under $50, they remained a great option for on-the-go listening. But with the demise of the smartphone headphone jack, eventually a modern wireless update was an obvious move. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/03\/multicore_logo.jpg","headline":"Multicore","description":"Multicore is about technology hardware and design. It's written from Tokyo by Sam Byford. To learn more visit multicore.blog","substackDomain":"https:\/\/www.multicore.blog","colorTheme":"salmon","redirectUrl":""}} Going wireless Unfortunately, Kosss first attempt in 2018 was a whiff. Despite coming after Apples AirPods made their debut, the wireless Porta Pro relied on a cable that housed an inline remote and a battery that rested on the wearers neck. Between the awkward wearability and a persistently flashing blue LED, the feedback was generally scathing. But recently, I found out that Koss released a radically updated version around a year ago, dubbed the Porta Pro Wireless 2.0. This feels like the sort of thing I should have noticed at the time, but apparently Koss didnt feel the need to actually tell anyone about the new version. Theres a press release, sure, but for some reason the product got virtually no coverage in the usual channels. Major sites like The Verge didnt follow up on withering coverage of the 1.0 model. You wont find reviews on major audio equipment outlets. Even the thread on legendarily obsessive audiophile forum Head-Fi has just 13 posts. (For comparison, the thread on my own Koss go-tos, the relatively obscure KPH30i, has 392.) The Porta Pro Wireless 2.0 is, however, freely available to order on Amazon for $99, so obviously I had to check it out. [Photo: Koss] Nailed it I am pleased to report that Koss actually nailed everything with this 2.0 edition. These are, for mostly better and occasionally worse, exactly what you would have expected from a wireless set of Porta Pro headphones in the first place. Most importantly, the dangly neck wire has been banished. Its now actually accurate to call these wireless. You lose the controls on the inline remote, sure, but I think most people would take that tradeoff. And while the design of the cans themselves remains the same as the original, the lack of wire makes them much more practical to wear. On the tech side of things, Koss has thankfully upgraded the 2.0 model to USB-C for charging. There is still a pulsating LED that indicates connectivity, but its tucked away on the underside of the right earpiece and isnt bright enough to be an annoyance. And unlike the previous model, these support analog audio through a cable when the battery dies. Porta Pro headphones were never known for their sturdy build qualityin fact, theyre positively flimsy. But the upside of this is that theyre very comfortable and can be squeezed down easily into a small circular footprint, which Koss takes advantage of with the helpful inclusion of a compact round hard case. As for the sound, well, they sound like Porta Pro headphones, which is to say they sound awesome for what they are. Theyre not exactly reference-level audio hardware, but the thumping bass and smoothed-off treble is a great fit for rock, rap and beyond, while the semi-open-back design allows for sound that feels wider and less claustrophobic than noise-cancelling Bluetooth cans. [Photo: Koss] The Porta Pro Wireless 2.0 does still feel pretty retro, for better and worse. Theres the lightweight plastic design, of course, which I imagine Koss correctly deemed to be nonnegotiable. But theres also the lack of modern features that are standard on headphones these days, like easy pairing. Getting these up and running on your phone is a roughly equivalent experience to using a Bluetooth earpiece in your car 15 years ago. If youve never used Porta Pro headphones before, I should also point out that these are not necessarily the most versatile headphones around. The on-ear, semi-open-back design is what enables the surprisingly wide oundstage, but it also means they offer virtually no sound isolation, and your audio is going to leak out to people around you. In other words, dont plan to use them on a plane. Still, overall the Porta Pro Wireless 2.0 does exactly what it ought tothese are Porta Pro headphones, but wireless. Maybe the muted launch was because Koss was stung by the reception to the previous wireless model. If so, I think that was a mistake. That was a bad product, and this is not. I think the world should know that you can, in fact, now buy a great wireless version of Porta Pro headphones, which remain a genuine design classic to this day. Im honestly not sure why this was news to me, but if its news to you too, my work here is done. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/03\/multicore_logo.jpg","headline":"Multicore","description":"Multicore is about technology hardware and design. It's written from Tokyo by Sam Byford. To learn more visit multicore.blog","substackDomain":"https:\/\/www.multicore.blog","colorTheme":"salmon","redirectUrl":""}}
Category:
E-Commerce
December is a month that many look forward to as holiday festivities kick into full gear and extended R&R with our loved ones nears. But for cryptocurrency investors, the month is off to anything but a good start. As of the time of this writing, cryptocurrency prices are down across the board on the first day of December trading. This encompasses significant price drops of major cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and Solana. Heres what you need to know. Cryptocurrencies begin December with steep declines Nearly every major cryptocurrency is seeing significant declines on the first trading day of December. As of the time of this writing, most major coins are down over the past 24 hours, including: Bitcoin: down 5% Ethereum: down 5.5% XRP: down 6.8% BNB: down 5.9% Solana: down 6.8% Additionally, meme coins have also declined, with Dogecoin down 8%. Unfortunately, these drops aren’t outliers for cryptocurrencies as of late. Over the past month, big-name cryptocurrencies have been hit hard as investors sold off the digital tokens amid declining risk appetites. Over the last 30 days, Bitcoin has now declined 21%, dropping from around $111,000 per token to todays current price of just over $86,600. During the same period, Ethereum fell by more than 26%, XRP by more than 18%, BNB by more than 24%, and Solana by more than 31%. Dogecoin is down more than 26% over the past month. Why are Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies dropping today? There isnt a single event weighing on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies today, just like there has not been one single event weighing on the digital token markets over the past month. Instead, the first trading day of December drops in cryptocurrencies across the board are likely being spurred by multiple factors. Perhaps the most significant factor behind the December 1 crypto drop is ongoing uncertainty about whether the Federal Reserve will vote to cut interest rates when the central bank meets to vote on the matter on December 9-10. A drop in interest rates is generally seen as a good thing for cryptocurrencies as rate drops increase liquidity in the markets, which typically spurs investors to take more risk. As cryptocurrencies are among the most volatile assets, increased risk-taking can stimulate investment in the coins, sending their prices higher. Yet if the Fed does not reduce rates, that increase in liquidity will not materialize, which could impact risk asset investments. Barchart reports that the markets are discounting an 83% chance that the Federal Reserves monetary policymaking group, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), will cut interest rates by 25 basis points. However, rate drops aren’t the only reason Bitcoin and other cryptos are starting December on the wrong foot. As Fast Company previously reported, in November, investors increasingly turned sour on artificial intelligence stocks, including on AI heavyweights like Nvidia Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA) and major OpenAI investor Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq: MSFT). Over the past month, NVDA shares have declined nearly 12% and MSFT shares are down more than 9%. The share prices of AI and AI-adjacent companies have been highly volatile this year amid growing fears of an AI bubble. Many investors who invest in those companies have high-risk appetites, which is why many AI investors are also cryptocurrency investors. And when one high-risk asset declines, investors tend to sell off their other high-risk assets to lock in any gains and prevent further losses. Continuing fears of an AI bubble, then, could be influencing declines in cryptocurrency prices. Aside from these two ongoing factors that have been weighing on crypto markets for a while now, there are a few more recent events that may be contributing to crypto losses on the first trading day of December. According to a report from CNBC, Peoples Bank of China issued a warning on Saturday about illegal activities involving digital tokens. That warning sent shares of companies in the digital asset sector lower on the Hong Kong market. Additionally, CoinDesk reports that early Monday saw notable forced liquidations in crypto markets as traders failed to meet margin requirements for leveraged positions, putting pressure on cryptocurrency prices. 2025 turns negative for crypto When the year began, many investors and industry watchers expressed optimism that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were in for a tremendous year of growth in 2025, largely thanks to the incoming Trump administration and its crypto-friendly policies. But while tokens like Bitcoin did reach an all-time high of more than $126,000 this year, the crypto king has declined well below its 2025 starting price. As of this writing, Bitcoin has lost about 7.24% of its 2025 opening value. Ethereum has lost 14.6% of its value, and Solana has lost 32%. BNB is a rare bright spot for major cryptocurrencies this year. The coin has seen growth of nearly 18% so far this year. Of course, given the volatile nature of cryptocurrencies, it’s always possible that things could reverse quickly. There is still one month left in the year, and if there is a late bull run on the tokens, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies could still come out green for the year. Whether or not that happens likely depends a lot on the Feds rate cut decision next weekand, of course, the greed and fear that investors feel in the run-up to the new year.
Category:
E-Commerce
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