Santa delivered — at least online.
Adobe Analytics said U.S. e-commerce sales grew by 4.9 percent to $222.1 billion over the November-December holiday sales period. Apparel and fashion was the second-largest category, behind electronics, and drummed up a total $41.5 billion in sales over the two-month period. Top sellers included pajamas, sneakers and cold-weather styles, including fleeces, sweatshirts and base layers.
Overall, this season outpaced the 3.5 percent growth seen during the holidays in 2022 with the final result coming in more or less as expected — just $300 million ahead of the $221.8 billion Adobe forecast in October.
Momentum slowed over the season as November online sales were up 6 percent — with $38 billion spent over the five days between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday — and then December sales ticking up 3.7 percent.
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But the gains didn’t come on their own.
“In an uncertain demand environment, retailers leaned on discounting and flexible payment methods to entice shoppers this holiday season,” said Vivek Pandya, lead analyst, Adobe Digital Insights. “The strategy was effective, driving record spend online during big days like Cyber Monday and Black Friday, and a record 11 days that surpassed $4 billion in daily spend this season.”
Discounts were steeper this year, with price cuts in apparel topping out at 24 percent, compared with a 19 percent high point in the 2022 holiday season.
Buy now, pay later played a part in $16.6 billion of the holiday spending, an increase of 14 percent from a year earlier. While buy now, pay later programs help brands drive sales in the moment, they can also take away from sales in January and February as consumers pay off their bills.
While the holiday season is a major driver for online merchants, it doesn’t come cheap.
Adobe said that paid search was the season’s biggest marking channel, driving 29.4 percent of online sales. The other key drivers were direct web visits (19.3 percent), affiliates/partners (16.6 percent), organic search (15.9 percent) and email (15.3 percent).
Less than 5 percent of sales were directly attributable to social media over the holidays.
Adobe’s sales info is drawn from data on 1 trillion visits to U.S. retail sites and 100 million stock keeping units across 18 product categories.
