Adobe released its 2024 online holiday shopping trends: Paid search drives the most retail sales this holiday season at nearly 30% of revenue. But influencers increase their share of holiday sales the most and convert shoppers nine-times higher than social media overall.
U.S. online holiday sales increased 8.4% year over year, reaching a record of $241.4 billion, according to Adobe Analytics data.
This is the largest online holiday spend on record and on 15 of those days, U.S. consumers spent $4 billion online in a single day, up from 11 days in 2023.
Adobe’s data is based on U.S. ecommerce purchases in November and December from 1 trillion visits to U.S. retail sites, 100 million SKUs and 18 product categories.
The data is not adjusted for inflation. According to Adobe, strong consumer spending drove demand, not higher prices.
Paid search drives highest share of revenue
Of the digital marketing channels, paid search drove the highest share of online holiday sales, at 29.7% of sales, a 1% year-over-year increase.
Online holiday sales by marketing channel:
- Paid search – 29.7%
- Direct web visits – 18.5%
- Affiliates/influencers/partners – 17.6%
- Organic search – 16.1%
- Email – 14.9%
- Social media – 5%
Figures are rounded. Of all the channels, affiliates increased their share of revenue the most, up 6% year over year, according to Adobe. In fact, social media influencers convert shoppers nine-times more than social media overall.
“Influencers continue to play an increasingly important role in helping consumers shop and compare products, brands and pricing,” said Vivek Pandya, lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights.
“Affiliates and partners – which includes social media influencers – have become a significant growth driver of retail sales in terms of driving awareness and mobile spending.”
As more consumers shop on smartphones, retailers need to ensure they create a wholistic experience which caters to shoppers spending time shopping in apps, social media platforms and engaging with influencers.
Smartphone shopping surged this holiday season, with 54.5% of online purchases converting on a mobile device, up from 51.5% of online transactions in 2023. Smartphone shopping was the highest on Christmas Day, with mobile account for 65% of online purchases on that day.
Discounts drove an additional $2.25 billion in holiday season dollars
Strong discounts helped drive sales even higher, with discounts peaking at 30.1% off list price, compared with 31% for the 2023 holiday season.
For every 1% decrease in price, demand increased by 1.029% compared to the 2023 season, according to Adobe data. This drove an additional $2.25 billion in online spend, and shows the stronger response to discounts from price-sensitive shoppers.
Online holiday shopping by category
Three categories dominated online holiday sales: electronics, apparel and furniture/home goods. These three categories accounted for more than half (54%) of all online spend in November and December:
- Electronics – $55. 3 billion, an 8.8% year-over-year increase
- Apparel – $45.6 billion, a 9.9% year-over-year increase
- Furniture/home goods – $29.2 billion, a 6.8% year-over-year increase
Categories with high year-over-year growth include:
- Grocery – up 12.9%
- Cosmetics – up 12.2%
Other insights from Adobe on 2024 online holiday shopping trends include:
- 18.4% of online holiday sales were picked up curbside.
- At $18.2 billion, nearly 8% of online holiday sales was via buy-now-pay-later buttons, a 9.6% year-over-year increase.
- Traffic to retail sites from a link via a generative AI chatbot increased 1,300% compared with the 2023 holiday season.
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