Adobe released data on Friday (25) showing this year’s Thanksgiving online shopping consumption increased nearly 3% from last year to US$5.29 billion, setting a record, which partially eased market concerns about weak purchasing momentum during the holiday shopping season at the end of the year.
Adobe also updated its forecast that this year’s Black Friday online shopping spend will go from US$9 billion to US$9.2 billion, which is better than the original estimate of US$9 billion (an increase annual rate of 1%).
As of 18:00 on Friday, the amount of online shopping by consumers has reached 7.28 billion US dollars.
“Demand for e-commerce remains strong, with Black Friday online sales on track to reach $9 billion for the first time,” said Vivek Pandya, an analyst at Adobe Digital Insights.
Adobe Analytics, Adobe’s data analytics team, measures holiday consumption by sourcing 85% of purchasing data from the top 100 e-commerce platforms in the United States.
According to the report, as more and more consumers place orders via mobile phones, the contribution of mobile shopping to online shopping consumption will reach 55% this year. Pandya said Thanksgiving this year was a game changer, with smartphones helping to drive real grocery growth and improve the mobile shopping experience.
Taking into account high inflation and the early start of the shopping season, Adobe previously forecast that this year’s Thanksgiving Day online shopping consumption will decline by 1% to $5.1 billion. The higher-than-expected spending showed that consumers were able to overcome the pressure of rising cost of living and continue spending despite the temptation of deep discounts offered by retailers.
With Thanksgiving and Black Friday boding well, Adobe expects the consumer momentum to carry over to Cyber Monday as well. During the five-day period from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, online sales will grow 2.8% annually to $34.8 billion, the agency said.
