U.S. online sales for the 2020 holiday season increased by 32.2% year-over-year, totaling a whopping $188.2 billion, according to Adobe Analytics, as shoppers stuck to ecommerce platforms during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Ecommerce sales during the month of November--which includes both Black Friday and Cyber Monday--also broke $100 billion for the first time ever, according to Adobe's data, which tracks the web transactions of 80 of top 100 internet retailers in the United States.
With the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, a record number of Americans have been purchasing items online, and selecting alternative options--such as curbside pick-up and buy online, pick up in store services--that do not involve face-to-face shopping.
Highlights of the November and December sales period also include increased smartphone shopping usage to buy holiday items, with smartphone sales accounting for 40% of the season's ecommerce growth, which was an 11% growth year-over-year. On Christmas Day 2020 in particular, 52% of its $1.3 billion online spending was on the smartphone.
In addition, there have been many boosts in sales growth across various industries throughout the holiday season. Groceries, appliances, and books also grew exponentially in sales levels as consumers shopped for more goods online: groceries at 404%, books at 202%, and books at 107%. Online toys and jewelry sales-staples of holiday gifts--also grew in vast numbers, with toys at 50% and jewelry at 66%.
The world of online shopping also includes an ongoing battle between small retailers and ecommerce giants. Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), one of the most popular and powerful ecommerce giants, has been competing against Walmart (NYSE: WMT) for market share for quite some time, with Amazon representing 40% of online retail industry, according to Forbes. However, Walmart follows closely behind, as it has grown 40% in online sales in the year 2018, and is now the third-largest ecommerce retailer in America, according to BusinessInsider. Initially, the smaller retailers were experiencing a boost in online sales early on with COVID-19, but their lead has all but disappeared as the large retailers began to improve their methods of appealing to customers; for the 2020 holiday season, small retailer sales increased 104% while large retailer gained 110%, according to Adobe, compared to 107% for large and 84% for small in 2019.
Taylor Schreiner, director of Adobe Digital Insights, said in a statement: "In light of the pandemic, digital has become the primary way for people to connect, work, be entertained and shop, helping set online spending records for the holiday season at $188.2 billion, which represents 32.2% YoY growth."
"With online shopping already heightened coming into the season due to early discounting and improved mobile shopping experiences, we saw revenue levels increase over Thanksgiving week and give way for record-breaking Black Friday and Cyber Monday at $9 billion and $10.8 billion, respectively," Schreiner continued. "Now, as COVID-19 cases continue to rise and more stringent lockdown measures return, online spending is expected to stay elevated, as least for the early part of 2021."