Adobe reported that the 2016 holiday season (November 1 – December 31) brought in $91.7 billion in online sales, an 11-percent increase year over year (YoY), and 0.13 percent ($115 million) more than Adobe’s original prediction of $91.6 billion. Fifty-seven out of 61 days this holiday season generated over $1 billion.
Additional highlights include:
• Mobile performance: Mobile brought in $28.43 billion in revenue, a 23-percent increase YoY ($19.26 billion from smartphones; $9.17 billion from tablets), driving 50 percent of visits (41 percent smartphones; 9 percent tablets) and 31 percent of purchases (21 percent smartphones; 10 percent tablets).
• Shipping prices: Average shipping costs were $2.50 in 2016, compared to $2.60 in 2015, and reached a peak of $4.10 on December 20. The lowest shipping costs this holiday season were on Thanksgiving ($1.60) and Cyber Monday (also $1.60). Sales increased toward the end of December, particularly around shipping cutoff dates, as consumers purchased later in the season and utilized options such as click and collect in-store.
• Social buzz: eBay was the most mentioned retailer on social, with eBay sellers promoting their items for purchase and eBay buyers highlighting products they bought that they couldn’t find in stores, followed by Amazon, Walmart, Target and H&M (from December 1 – 31). Pokémon Sun/Moon beat out Barbie as the top mentioned product followed by Oculus, Lego, PSVR and Frozen Toys.
“This holiday shopping season brought in a record $91.7 billion in online sales, which is just $115 million more than we originally predicted,” said Tamara Gaffney, principal analyst and director, Adobe Digital Insights. “But it’s not just the total online sales figure that made this a historic holiday shopping season. This year, Black Friday set a new record by surpassing the three-billion-dollar mark for the first time at $3.34 billion, with high growth in the evening hours. We also saw big gains in mobile spend, with Black Friday becoming the first day in retail history to drive over one billion dollars in mobile revenue. Electronics purchases, especially tablets, will spur even more online spend in 2017.”
