Ecommerce sales hit a record high during the recent holiday season, with consumers spending a total of $211.7 billion online between the beginning of November and the end of December.
Ecommerce Sales Hit a Record High in the 2022 Holiday Shopping Season
The spend represents a year-over-year growth of 3.5%, which beat the previous record, with the data provided by Adobe who recently published their online retail insights for the 2022 holiday season. The Adobe report was based on the company’s Analytics data, which analyzed online commerce transactions including over a trillion visits to U.S. retail sites, along with 100 million SKUs across 18 product categories.
Toys and Video Games Top Demand
The record-breaking increase for 2022’s holiday season was driven by huge demand for toys which experienced online sales growth of 206% compared to pre-season levels from the previous October. Video games also saw huge growth with 115%, while clothing and accessories grew 94%.
Sub-categories that experienced a strong increase in demand includes wrist watches which grew 108%, and baby toys which grew 101%. Demand for gift cards was up 98%, while both cosmetics and outdoor grills also saw big growth with increases of 90% and 86% respectively.
Other popular sub-categories include speakers growing by 76%, and smart home products which grew by 67%.
Discounts Drive Holiday Sales
The Lead Analyst for Digital Insights at Adobe, Vivek Pandya, identified discounts as one of the biggest drivers of increased ecommerce transactions during the recent holiday season, saying: “At a time when consumers were dealing with elevated prices in areas such as food, gas and rent, holiday discounts were strong enough to sustain discretionary spending through the entire season. The big deals drew in consumers and drove volume, helping retailers who were challenged with oversupply issues, particularly in categories such as apparel, electronics and toys.”
Adobe also outlined how discounts had affected various categories, saying: “Shoppers found great deals in toys, where discounts peaked at 34% off listed price (vs. 19% in 2021), as well as electronics at 25% (vs. 8%). Discounts were strong across other categories including computers at 20% (vs. 10%), apparel at 19% (vs. 13%), televisions at 17% (vs. 11%), appliances at 16% (vs. 4%), sporting goods at 10% (vs. 6%), and furniture at 8% (vs. 2%).”
Mobile Shopping Increases
Adobe’s insights also discovered a significant increase in mobile shopping. 2022’s holiday season saw 47% of online sales happen via smartphones, which is up 4% from 2021.
December 25 also set a new mobile record, with smartphones driving the majority of online sales at 61%, which is an increase of 3% from 2021.
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