Consumers spent more than $200B online during holiday season, breaking record

Consumers spent more than $200 billion online during this past holiday season, breaking another record for e-commerce this season. 

Data from Adobe showed that online shopping from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31 yielded $211.7 billion, a 3.5 percent year-over-year increase. The five days between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday contributed $35.3 billion of that total, but data shows consumer spending was persistent throughout the entire season, according to an Adobe release. 

Shoppers spent more than $3 billion in aggregate on 38 days of the season, on track with what happened last year. But only 25 days of the 2020 season surpassed $3 billion, the release states. 

Adobe data shows people spent $188 billion online during the 2020 season and $205 billion during the 2021 season. 

Adobe Analytics previously showed record spending occurred on Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Consumers spent $9.12 billion on Black Friday and more than $11.3 billion on Cyber Monday. 

Demand for toys, which grew more than 200 percent compared to the level recorded in October, drove the increase the most, but video games and apparel and accessories also saw major step-ups in demand. 

Adobe data also showed discounts hitting record highs this season despite high levels of inflation. 

Discounts peaked for toys at 34 percent off and electronics at 25 percent off, according to the release. They peaked at only 19 percent for toys and 8 percent for electronics last year. 

“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,” said Vivek Pandya, the lead analyst of Adobe Digital Insights. 

Adobe said in the release that the strong consumer spending online was driven by net increase in demand and not just inflation. 

Adobe’s Digital Price Index shows that prices online have been falling since September. The index tracks e-commerce prices across 18 categories. 

Almost half of all online sales were conducted on smartphones. Christmas Day set a record for the number of sales made on mobile devices, with 61 percent done that way.