Even before Thanksgiving, ecommerce sales are already off to the races this holiday season.
From Nov. 1 to Nov. 20, U.S. consumers spent $31.9 billion online, according to data from Adobe Analytics, a 16.7% jump from last year. More than $1 billion in sales were generated all of those 20 days, Adobe said, a new record, with $2 billion being recorded on Nov. 20.
Given how holiday season online sales have been tracking to date, Adobe reaffirmed its full season forecast of $124.1 billion in ecommerce spending in November and December.
Adobe’s figures are based on analysis of more than 1 trillion visits to retail sites across 55 million SKUs at 80 of the top 100 U.S. online sellers.
Over Cyber Weekend, Adobe is forecasting $3.3 billion in ecommerce sales on Thanksgiving (up 16.5%), $5.9 billion on Black Friday (up 17.2%) and $7.8 billion on Cyber Monday (up 17.6%).
Thus far in November, shoppers have seen average discounts of 15.4% for computers, 4.9% for televisions and 12% for toys, according to Adobe. Discounts overall are generally in line with 2017. While computers have been the biggest deals to date, big-screen TVs are expected to outstrip them when the shopping rush starts in earnest tomorrow.
The sharpest discounts are expected to on Black Friday, on computers (average of 16% off), tablets (33%) and televisions (22%), according to Adobe’s analysis. The best deals for sporting goods will come on Thanksgiving Day (average of 13% off). Sunday, usually not thought of as a major shopping event, is projected to have the best deals for apparel (22% off), appliances (18% off) and jewelry (5% off). Toy buyers will see the biggest wins on Cyber Monday (19% off).
Adobe reported conversion rates are up across all devices thus far. Offers on tablets are seeing an average conversion rate of 4.2%, up 5.5%, with 2% on smartphones (up 7.7%) and 4.3% on desktops (up 2.9%).
Direct site traffic ranks highest for driving sales at a 27.4% share of sales (up 0.2%), Adobe found, followed by paid search (24%, up 6.3%), natural search (21.1%, down 6%), and email (20%, up 3%).
“We are on track for another blockbuster season for ecommerce as consumers increasingly favor the convenience of shopping online,” said Taylor Schreiner, director, Adobe Digital Insights.