US holiday online shopping on pace for sales record
U.S. shoppers are on pace to spend a record amount of money online during this holiday season, according to early projections from Adobe Analytics released Friday.
Consumers spent $80.3 billion on e-commerce platforms from Nov. 1 to Dec. 6, marking an increase of 18.6 percent compared to the $67.7 billion spent in the same period one year ago. Smartphones played a key role in the sales surge, with mobile transaction revenue rising nearly 55 percent to $23.7 billion.
“Retailers are reaping the rewards of their investments in mobile and have seen unprecedented success in converting mobile traffic to sales,” said Taylor Schreiner, director of Adobe Digital Insights. “Holiday shoppers have relied heavily on their mobile devices, resulting in an unprecedented 55% percent year-over-year increase in sales from smartphones alone. Indeed, smartphones are driving this season’s impressive growth.”
For the full holiday season of Nov. 1 to Dec. 31, U.S. consumers are expected to spend at least $124.1 billion, according to Adobe’s forecasts. The firm measures data from 80 of the top 100 U.S. online retailers, including Walmart and Amazon.
If reached, that would figure would smash last year’s total spending haul of $108.2 billion.
Holiday figures were bolstered by unprecedented spending on Black Friday and Cyber Monday last month. Customers spent a record $6.22 billion on Black Friday and $7.9 billion on Cyber Monday, Adobe said.
Shoppers in Alaska, California, Washington, New York and Wyoming have spent the most money per order so far this holiday season.