Adobe: Holiday Online Shopping Topped $188.2 Billion

The 2020 holiday season was rife with online shopping, which hit a record $188.2 billion, or two years' worth of growth, according to an analysis from Adobe Digital Insights (ADI).

That number represents a 32 percent increase over the same time the previous year, ADI said.

The number of online spending during the two-month holiday shopping period was, for the first time, over $1 billion every day, according to ADI, which shows that the predominant mode of spending over the past year because of the pandemic is likely here to stay.

ADI also noted that Cyber Monday sales went past $10 billion, which made the average spend around $3 billion per day.

Contactless shopping was also prevalent, ADI said, as customers would buy goods online and pick them up in the store. That method yielded an increase from 15 percent to 25 percent in the beginning of the pandemic and made up around one in four orders during the holiday season.

“In light of the pandemic, digital became the primary way for people to connect, work, be entertained and shop, helping set online spending records for the holiday season,” said Taylor Schreiner, director of ADI, in a statement. “With online shopping already heightened coming into the season due to early discounting and improved mobile shopping experience, we saw revenue levels increase over Thanksgiving week and give way for record-breaking Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Now, as COVID-19 cases continue to rise and more stringent lock-down measures return, online spending is expected to stay elevated, at least for the early part of 2021.”

With the rise in eCommerce, there's likely to be a greater number of returns, as they're more common when consumers can't hand-pick items from a store. PYMNTS reported that mass returns are hurting retailers as the stores have to take the blow of reversing a sale, which won't amount to any profit, and they have to process a returned item — and if they can't restock it, they lose whatever they paid for it.