Traders on Wall Street might fear a recession is looming, but consumers are merrily spending this year for holiday gifts.
A new report from Adobe Analytics finds that consumers have spent $80.3 billion in online shopping from November 1 through the end of December 6. That’s an 18.6% increase (or nearly $13 billion) over the same time period in 2017.
If spending keeps up at this pace, Adobe predicts overall holiday online spending will top $124 billion this year. The report, based on the analysis of more than 1 trillion visits to retail sites and 55 million SKUs, does not factor in brick-and-mortar sales.
More and more people, not surprisingly, are using their phones to shop. Mobile transactions came in at $23.7 billion, showing year over year growth of 54.8%. 2018 represents the first holiday season when more than half of the visits to digital storefronts came from mobile devices.
“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. “Smartphones are driving this season’s impressive growth. So far this season, we see $8.4 billion more dollars coming from smartphones versus last year, compared to $3.8 billion more dollars coming from desktop computers compared to last year.”
Adobe Analytics has been tracking online sales throughout the holiday season, including Cyber Monday. Before the season started, the group predicted a 15% jump overall in online holiday sales this year.
