US Holiday Shoppers to Spend $124 Billion Online

Adobe has released its predictions for the 2018 holiday season, claiming online sales in the US are set to jump up by 14.8 percent to a total of $124.1 billion. The company has also projected an increase in offline retail spending, estimating a more modest growth of 2.7 percent.

Cyber Monday and Thanksgiving Day sales are expected to be key drivers of this growth, while an extra calendar day between late November and Christmas Day is expected to give retailers a $284 million boost in sales. According to Adobe, there will be more calendar days over this year’s holiday trade period that will set new records, with 36 days predicted to surpass $2 billion in sales, compared to only 22 days in 2017.

According to Scott Rigby, the head of digital transformation at Adobe, Australian retailers should also expect to see a boost in sales, particularly during November as shoppers have access to a number of online shopping events, like Click Frenzy.

“The 2018 holiday shopping predictions reflect a very similar retail landscape to ours here in Australia and with US online sales expected to increase by double digits this holiday season, we expect there will also be a significant increase in Australian online sales,” Rigby said in a statement.

“Similarly to our US counterparts, we predict that local retailers with online and physical storefronts will see a significant boost in sales conversions over Christmas. It is also highly likely that as consumers become more and more conditioned to wait for big discount sales rather than pay a premium, we will see a similar uplift in online sales on big sales days.”

In 2017, Click Frenzy’s annual November shopping event attracted more than 2.5 million shoppers to 568 participating retailer’s sites. This year, the company is predicting even stronger results as it kick-start’s its search for Australia’s best online shopper. With a $50,000 grand prize up-for-grabs, event organisers are expecting a substantial increase in web traffic for the duration of the sale.

The data from Adobe also indicates that retailers operating a cross-channel shopping experience for consumers will see bigger growth over the holiday period than those who are purely online or bricks-and-mortar. Adobe has predicted a 28 percent higher conversion rate for stores that have a complementary online presence. According to the results of Adobe’s survey of 1,000 consumers in the US, 47 percent of shoppers plan to browse both in-store and online.

The popularity of click and collect services are also expected to sky-rocket over the next vital months in the retail calendar, with adoption rates already increasing by 119 percent since January.

Disclosure: Click Frenzy Pty Ltd is a subsidiary of Global Marketplace Pty Ltd, the parent company of The Media Pad Pty Ltd, which publishes Power Retail. 

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