Retail Brew
Things are going to get weird this holiday season. That’s not according to our own experiences at the dinner table, but Adobe’s new holiday shopping forecast.
“It is probably one of the most unusual holiday seasons we’ve seen, especially after a year where consumers had no choice but to go online,” Vivek Pandya, lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights, told Retail Brew.
To that end, US online holiday sales are set to surpass the $200 billion benchmark this year and reach a record high of $207 billion between November 1 to December 31, a 10% bump from 2020, per Adobe.
- US consumers will spend an average of 12 hours doing their online holiday shopping.
What are the odds…? That shoppers will find exactly what they’re looking for? Well, given the supply-chain crisis *waves hands* everywhere, Adobe noted out-of-stock messages have already increased by 172% heading into the holidays, compared to January 2020.
- Apparel is the hardest-hit category, followed by sporting goods, baby products, and electronics.
Plus, with consumers wary of shipping delays, curbside pick-up will again take center stage this year. Pandya told us shoppers will rely on the service the closer we get to the holidays; Adobe expects curbside pick-up to account for 40% of all online orders and to peak just before Christmas Eve.