kajakiki via Getty Images
By Tatiana Walk-Morris
Source: www.retaildive.com, November 2022

Dive Brief:

  • A sign of consumer demand ahead of the holidays, shoppers spent $72.2 billion online in October, a 10.9% bump from September, and roughly on par with the $72.4 billion that was spent in October 2021, according to an Adobe Analytics report released Thursday. Between January and October, consumers have spent $727 billion, a 6.9% bump from 2021.
  • Adobe found that holiday decor and outerwear sales skyrocketed 189% and 142%, respectively, compared to daily average sales in August.
  • Retailers have offered higher discounts on electronics (17%), toys (15%), computers (10%) than they have on TVs (4%), sporting goods (3%) and furniture (2%), Adobe found.

Dive Insight:

Adobe’s report offered some insight into consumers’ early holiday purchases. Among the top-selling toys sold last month were Squishmallows, Roblox figurines, Pokémon card games and LOL Surprise dolls. PlayStation 5, Xbox Series 5, Nintendo Switch and Apple products were some of the top electronics and gaming devices, Adobe found.

“Despite inflationary pressures and the rising cost of borrowing, there was not a material decline this year in early holiday shopping,” Taylor Schreiner, senior director of Adobe Digital Insights, said in a statement. “With over $72 billion spent online in October, ecommerce demand has shown itself to be durable and resilient, in spite of a challenging macroeconomic environment.”

Adobe’s report noted that retailers might offer the best markdowns around Cyber Week. Last month, Adobe predicted that shoppers will spend $11.2 billion on Cyber Monday, up 5.1% from last year. And on Black Friday, consumers are only expected to spend $9 billion, a mere 1% increase year-over-year. Another October report from the ICSC projects that shoppers will spend 6.7% more this holiday season compared to 2021.

Consumers are expected to spend more this holiday season but may get less for their money. A November report from Signifyd predicted that while Cyber Week sales might increase by 5% this year from 2021, product volume could decline by 13% — indicating that shoppers are spending more money on fewer items.

It is not entirely clear yet just how many consumers will rely on buy now, pay later providers this holiday season. Compared to 2021, the revenue share from buy now, pay later providers in October increased by only 1%, Adobe said. A PwC report released this week found that only 13% of consumers overall will pay for holiday goods via installment payment services.