Adobe has revealed its forecasts for online shopping sales in the holiday season of 2023 in the U.S. According to interesting statistics, sales are expected to hit $221.8 billion during the holiday season extending from Nov 1 to Dec 2023.
Collected by Adobe Analytics, part of Adobe Experience Cloud that gathers and analyzes customer data and experiences, the latest holiday season forecast covers over 1 trillion visits to U.S. retail sites, 100 million SKUs, and 18 product categories.
According to the report, holiday sales will achieve a 4.8% growth year-over-year (YoY) compared to 2022’s 3.5% growth. Consumers, through increased usage of facilities like Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) and discounts, are expected to boost online shopping by $17 billion (vs. $14.5 billion in 2022, up 16.9%).
Additionally, shopping during Cyber Week, which includes holidays like Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday, will drive $37.2 billion in online spending, up 5.4% YoY and representing 16.8% of the holiday season. Out of these holidays, Cyber Monday is forecasted to be the biggest shopping day.
Patrick Brown, vice president of growth marketing at Adobe, mentioned that consumers will now receive more facilities like BNPL that would boost the e-commerce industry. He suggested that this holiday season, US shoppers would get to enjoy “record discounts and flexible payment methods.” He added:
“Buy Now, Pay Later, in particular, has become increasingly mainstream and will make it easier for shoppers to hit the buy button, especially on mobile devices where over half of the online spending will take place.”
Owing to the uncertain retail environment, discounts are to reach a record-high of up to 35% off listed prices. Moreover, the competitive nature of today’s market accompanied by surging food and gas prices, has encouraged online retailers to offer greater discounts.
Adobe Analytics highlights that of the 18 product categories, toys, electronics, and apparel are expected to offer significant discounts. Cyber Monday is forecasted to bring major discounts as well.
The blog post also shows some suitable dates for certain purchases as they offer the highest discounts on the product categories.
Apart from this, the BNPL payment method is another noteworthy trend. Based on an Adobe survey of 1,000 US consumers, 1 in 5 individuals agreed to use the BNPL service for holiday purchases this year.
Lastly, Adobe’s report mentions that this holiday season, over half (51.2%) of online spending will take place on mobile devices. Some top sellers in products would be LEGO, barbie products, Sony PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, iPhone 15 models, Kindles, and Fujifilm Instax Mini Evo cameras, among several others.
All in all, the holiday season for 2023 is expected to bring significant discounts for US consumers, flexible payment methods, and an overall mobile-centered shopping experience.