The 2024 holidays have exceeded, if not exceeded, record forecasts for e-commerce. U.S. consumers spent $241.4 billion online between November 1 and December 31, an increase of 8.7% from 2023, according to Adobe Analytics.
Before the holidays, Adobe had planned $240.8 billion in online sales, up 8.4% year-on-year.
Dig Deeper: 2024 Holiday Sales Live Up to Record Projections
Inflation. The record holidays are the result of strong consumer spending, not rising prices. Adobe’s Digital Price Index showed that consumer prices have fallen for 27 straight months and were down 2.6% in November from a year earlier. Clothing was down almost 8% year-on-year in November 2024, according to the index.
Mobile transactions. The 2024 holidays were the most mobile ever, according to Adobe. Smartphones generated 54.5% of online purchases.
Additionally, 79.1% of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) orders were made on a smartphone.
AI agents. Traffic to retail sites driven by genAI-powered chatbots increased 1,300% year-over-year, according to Adobe.
An Adobe survey of 5,000 consumers found that seven in 10 respondents who used genAI-based assistants found them useful.
Dig Deeper: Will AI agents lead the martech orchestra in 2025?
Main categories. Three categories accounted for more than half (54%) of all e-commerce:
Electronics: $55.3 billion, up 8.8% year-on-year. Clothing: $45.6 billion, up 9.9% year-on-year. Furniture/Home Goods: $29.2 billion, up 6.8% year-over-year.
The fastest growing e-commerce category is grocery, up 12.9% year-over-year and accounting for $21.5 billion in sales. Next came cosmetics, up 12.2%, with a turnover of $7.7 billion.
Why we care. Sales data showed that discounts contributed to strong holiday performance. For example, the best-selling category, electronics, received the highest discounts – 30.1% off the list price.
Beyond the holidays, the broader story is about how consumers are taking advantage of discounts and mobile shopping experiences to purchase product categories not associated with gifting: groceries and furniture. Holiday shoppers don’t just shop with the holidays in mind, so these trends apply year-round.
More Adobe Analytics holiday data can be found here.
