Thanksgiving Thursday, when stores in the United States are closed and many are off work, has become the in fact start of the holiday shopping season both for those looking for bargains online and for online retailers to launch holiday sales offers to meet that demand. But if there’s one message from this year’s Thanksgiving sales, it’s that consumers are holding firm but not holding their breath for a surge in growth.
Adobe Analysis saying What people in the United States spent on Thursday was $5.6 billion online, an estimated increase of just 5.5% from last year.
Salesforce, which also calculates sales based on data collected by its Commerce Cloud division, noted That globally, online sales reached $31.7 billion, with a total of $7.5 billion in the United States, both up just 1%. Salesforce’s estimates of average order value were similarly modest. Globally, average orders rose just 2% to $103 per “basket,” while in the United States they rose a paltry 1% to $119.
Mobile devices had a breakout year: Adobe said about $3.3 billion was spent on mobile devices on Thanksgiving Day, a 14% increase and an all-time high for that day.
Salesforce added that overall online traffic to e-commerce sites, which will include browsing, also increased, but again only by single digits of 4% globally and 6% in the US.
The two are actively following sales today, Black Friday, and the entire “Cyber Weekend,” which not only kicks off holiday shopping but is performing particularly strongly in online sales as people travel. To be with the family. As an indicator for the rest of the Christmas period, traditionally the biggest retail sales period of the year, the flat sales speak of another tough year for online retailers.
Adobe Analytics predicts $37.2 billion in online spending over the full five days, a year-over-year increase of just 5.4% and representing 16.8% of all holiday spending. And Black Friday will see $9.6 billion in sales, roughly the same increase, 5.7%, compared to last year’s numbers. (The figures published in 2022 were $9.13 billion.) Salesforce has not provided forecasts.
To put today’s Thanksgiving numbers into context, the numbers released last year by Adobe were $5.29 billion, which is actually an increase of just under 4%. (Adobe Analytics likely readjusted its final numbers from last year, which is why we see a higher percentage of growth.) The current rate of 5.5% is definitely an improvement over last year’s 2.9%. But it is. nothing compared to the years before Covid-19, like 2017, where we saw growth of 18% or more.
Inflation is having an impact, but not as much as concerns about consumer spending, said Adobe, which said spending is actually led by more discounts to encourage purchasing, rather than fewer purchases of more expensive products. . That leads one to wonder what kind of impact that is having on retailers’ margins.
“Cyber Week is off to a strong start, with Thanksgiving driving a record $5.6 billion in online spending as consumers took advantage of steep discounts and continued their shopping plans virtually” said Vivek Pandya, principal analyst at Adobe Digital Insights, in a statement. “Mobile shopping hit an all-time high as shoppers turned to their smartphones to get the best deals during holiday gatherings, further cementing the growing importance of mobile devices in e-commerce.”
Adobe Analytics’ numbers are based, it says, on 1 billion visits to US retail sites, 100 million SKUs, and 18 product categories. Salesforce says it uses data from 1.5 billion consumers in its research. (Both companies work with several giant and smaller retailers, so they have the infrastructure to provide this type of information to these customers on an ongoing basis.)
Breaking down some of the trends in how people shop:
— Overall, desktop sales continue to outperform other types of displays when it comes to conversions and number of items purchased, but mobile devices are the most prominent device in the evening hours, when they accounted for a whopping 59 % of all online sales (probably because people took advantage of that time to socialize and shop on the sly).
— More on mobile: Salesforce said that on that day, mobile devices accounted for 79% of all online traffic globally and 82% in the US, and that mobile wallets were really making a mark by reduce some of the purchasing friction on smaller devices. Apple Pay saw a 47% increase in transactions compared to 44% for all mobile wallets overall. Social media on mobile devices (think Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat links) has become an influencer in itself. These together accounted for 13% of all site referral traffic. However, notably, that’s not where most of the shopping takes place.
“Mobile traffic and sales are increasing as people get back on the move this holiday weekend,” Rob Garf, vice president and general manager of retail sales at Salesforce, said in a statement. “Consumers are embracing mobile wallets to eliminate the friction between discovering on social media and purchasing on mobile.”
— Retailers are really offering discounts to make people more willing to spend money this year. Both Adobe and Salesforce said that in the United States discounts increased by approximately 28%. Categories that saw dramatic reductions included toys, electronics and computers, according to Adobe figures; respectively, these sales increased by 182% and 113% compared to last month.
— Buy now, pay later (BNPL) remains a popular option for paying up front. BNPL generated $390 million in online spending, Adobe said, up 7.5% from last year.
We’ll update with more data later and with Black Friday numbers as they start to emerge.
