The online spending of the season of Christmas is expected to surpass 200 billion, for the very first time ever, as per information from Adobe Analytics, which tracks the sales of consumers on websites of retailers.

However, sales on Thanksgiving Day were at the lower portion of the forecasts from Adobe.

The online sales on Thanksgiving Day reached $5.1 billion, according to Adobe.

This is the same as the spending of last year’s Thanksgiving day. This is roughly 21 per cent rise from the sale on the same day in 2019m the analytics company said.

However, the volume of online shopping was in the lower end of Adobe’s expected range, which is between $5.1 billion and $5.4 billion.

The company anticipates that the total online sales for this season will reach $207 billion which will be a 10 per cent year over year growth and a record high.

The results raise doubts about the likelihood that holiday sales will be as high as anticipated or if Thanksgiving’s importance has decreased since shoppers purchase gifts throughout the year.

The pandemic has altered the pace of the holiday season as retailers increased sale events for the holidays and encourage customers to shop earlier so as to avoid stock shortages and delays because of shipping in the midst of supply chain issues.

All-in-one holiday shopping – both online and in retail stores, is also predicted to hit an all-time record of $843.4 billion to $859 billion which would be an 8.5 per cent and 10.5 per cent increase, according to the National Retail Federation.

The forecast for sales excludes the purchase of automobile dealers, gas stations, and eateries.

Spending on online shopping on Black Friday is expected to amount to between $8.8 billion and $9.6 billion, according to Adobe.

The figure was at $9.03 billion for the same period in 2020, and $7.43 billion in 2019. According to Adobe, the year 2019 was the biggest year for online shopping.

(Adapted from CNBC.com)

Categories: Economy & Finance, Entrepreneurship, Sustainability, Uncategorized