Despite massive out of stock levels due to supply chain and inventory issues, U.S. holiday ecommerce spending hit a record $204.5 billion over the 2021 holidays, up 8.6%, according to Adobe’s Digital Economy Index, with 38 days where over $3 billion exchanged hands, vs. 25 such days in 2020.
Like its holiday twin Black Friday, Cyber Monday in the U.S. saw ecommerce sales reverse course for the first time in memory, according to Adobe Digital Insights, dropping 1.4% from 2020. Consumers en masse have heeded warnings about stock-outs on digital shelves amid supply chain-fueled inventory shortages by shopping earlier.
Adobe Digital Insights is predicting U.S. holiday spending online will rise 10% over 2020, hitting a record $207 billion, with global spending to reach $910 billion, an 11% increase, while calling for a decreased emphasis on traditionally major days during Cyber Weekend as demand pulls forward.
In an interesting twist, Walmart is offering access to services such as ecommerce order pickup and delivery to smaller retailers via a subscription program through partnering with Adobe, expanding revenue by selling its services a la Amazon’s cloud computing juggernaut.
Records were made to be broken, and the all-time sales day for ecommerce was no exception. Cyber Monday hit a record $10.8B in the U.S., up 15.1% from $9.4B in 2019, making it the largest online shopping day in U.S. history, according to Adobe Analytics. Mobile commerce slipped slightly from Black Friday (37% of the total vs. 40%).
As expected, Black Friday 2020 saw tremendous success online but was a bust in stores, as shopper behavior has been altered irrevocably by the ongoing pandemic. Adobe Analytics reported $9 billion in ecommerce sales on Black Friday, up 21.6% from $7.4 billion in 2019. Store traffic meanwhile was down 48% to 52%.
In the peak holiday season like no other, Adobe is calling for a 33% increase in holiday ecommerce sales from Nov. 1 through Dec. 31, hitting a record $189 billion, equal to two years’ growth from a single year, as retailers, carriers and solution providers alike gear up for a blowout.
What is the potential for Facebook Shops? Could it be looking beyond transactions to a WeChat scenario creating a total consumer experience? In this MCM CommerceChat podcast, Andrea Szasz, a principal analyst at Kearney, talks about Facebook’s initiative and how it fits into the bigger picture of ecommerce in the COVID-19 era.
Driven by COVID-19 restrictions, ecommerce grew 49% between the early March shutdowns and the end of April, according to Adobe’s latest Digital Economy Index, with large gains in curbside and store pickup and e-grocery as the retail world continues to reset. Bazaarvoice also found ecommerce orders were up 96% in April year-over-year.
Driven by coronavirus impacts, U.S. ecommerce sales recently surged in a number of categories, with e-grocery sales doubling between March 13-15 compared to March 1-11, overall ecommerce sales rising 25% in the same comparison and BOPIS increasing 62% from a year ago, according to new data from Adobe Analytics.