Holiday Shopping Off to a Strong Start Overall
Consumers have already spent about $79.7 billion online this holiday season, according to Adobe. The early holiday spending is up about 7.5% from last year's pace.
Adobe highlighted that the strong spending so far has been driven in part by early deals. For the first 23 days of the season, discounts for electronics peaked at 12% but are expected to jump to 29% on Cyber Monday. In other categories, Cyber Monday is set to have the biggest discounts for apparel at 25% (vs. 12.2% in the first 23 days of the season) and computers at 23% (vs. 12.9%). Meanwhile, Black Friday is set to have the biggest discounts for televisions at 23% (vs. 11.1% for the early part of the holiday season). Toys and appliances are also forecast to see big discounts on Black Friday.
The data from Adobe indicated that shoppers are also trading up to higher-ticket items, taking advantage of deals to get greater value. Categories such as electronics have seen their share of units sold for the most expensive goods increase by more than 30%. Other categories where consumers are trading up include sporting goods (up 36%), appliances (up 24%), personal care products (up 20%), and tools/home improvement (up 17%). Generative AI is also a major holiday shopping factor. In the first 23 days of the season, AI traffic rose by 830% year-over-year. The generative AI tools were noted to have been used most for categories including toys, video games, appliances, personal care products, and electronics. Adobe also observed that shoppers who landed on a U.S. retail site from an AI service were30X more likely to buy something. Additionally, in Adobe’s survey, 32% of respondents reported having used AI to aid in their online shopping journeys, and nearly half (48%) said they have used or plan to use AI specifically for holiday shopping.
Cyber Week is expected to drive 17.2% of overall spending and be up 6.3% year-over-year. Cyber Monday is anticipated to remain the biggest online shopping day of the season at a projected $14.2 billion in sales.
tobaccocardyahoo
·8 months agoI get some of my data from Amazon.
I actually look at my past purchases on Amazon, most of which are still being sold.
Very few of them are selling for more today than when I bought them, 3 months, 6 months or a year ago. Some are selling for less.
As some of us who follow economic news may know, economists differ on which measures of inflation they prefer. The measures preferred by the FED today are not the same numbers as they used in the past.
Our personal inflation rates vary, mine is very low. The greatest increases I have seen in the past year are in the cost of beef. This does not mean that for the four years before that I was not affected by the runaway inflation. My economic status has not changed, though my costs have changed.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
OP8 months agoOf course, there's also this viewpoint:
https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/25/business/holiday-shopping-economy-inflation
which suggests things might not be quite as rosy as they first appear....
chapeau-noir
·8 months ago<<
But those folks are spending more in part because prices are higher. Stubborn inflation, combined with already-high prices, has forced people to shell out more for the holidays, pushing spending numbers up.
“Holiday shopping is far from full swing, but spending shifts are already surfacing,†said Vicki Hyman, communications director at Mastercard, in a recent report. “Inflation is expected to be a larger contributor to sales growth, as opposed to actual sales volume.â€>>
That's the little secret that those who defend the machine forget to add. I certainly see it in my bills, particularly groceries.
Also it's true that the wealthy/upper middle class and everyone else live in two different worlds - that has always been the case, but is increasingly fractured with wealth transfer, particularly now. However, the fact that there IS spending instead of pull-back is encouraging. Also, I think people are simply spending more carefully.
meme6253
·8 months agoThat's Great news, Let's Hope it spills over to sales on eBay for us sellers.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
OP8 months ago@meme6253 I sure hope so.
It might help if ebay would run an actual Holiday Marketing campaign like pretty much every other platform does, but hey, it wouldn't be Christmas if I wasn't complaining yet again about ebay's total inability to grasp the importance of a Holiday Marketing campaign. So, Happy Holidays to us all, and here's hoping we all sell a lot of stuff!
meme6253
·8 months agoYou would think that they would understand the Importance of running a Holiday Campaign!