This blog was last updated on September 28, 2021

Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2020 were record-breaking shopping days, further showing that e-commerce is not “a phase” and will likely continue to be a central aspect to daily operations for businesses. Black Friday online sales increased by nearly 22% to $9 billion, while Cyber Monday sales increased nearly 15% from 2019 – $10.8 billion in sales. 

The data from Sovos’ global tax rate calculation engine and database, supports this trend—with transaction volumes reaching seven times higher than average.

Specifically, Black Friday’s transaction volume had a 197% increase from last year, with line item count growing 211% in that same time. Additionally, Cyber Monday transaction volume saw a 169% increase compared to 2019 numbers, with line item count increasing 202%. 

Sovos’ global tax determination system performed seamlessly through the unprecedented demand on cloud services, delivering a reliable and stable tax calculation platform. Response times met or exceeded performance expectations even as line item calculations soared on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

A key sales and use tax trend

October through December are traditionally heavy shopping months, pushing businesses as shoppers work to finalize their holiday purchases. 

But organizations should not have to worry about being unable to meet customer needs on days – or weeks – when business spikes. Instead, those times of record sales should feel like “business as usual,” with companies knowing that they will have uninterrupted, reliable and fast service. As industry trends continue to morph toward e-commerce shopping, Sovos Sales and Use Tax clients were able to rest assured that customer needs were met and were met quickly: uptime was 100% with an average response time around 150 milliseconds.