Consumers spent $211.7 billion online in November and December 2022, representing a new ecommerce record and 3.5% growth YoY. This despite concerns about inflation, possible recession and supply chain issues.
Demand for toys and video games soared conspicuously compared to pre-season levels, while other categories that performed well included wristwatches, cosmetics, gift cards and — perhaps looking ahead to the spring — outdoor grills.
A strong Cyber Week. The five days between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, known as Cyber Week, made a major contribution to this growth. It saw $35.3 billion in online spending, a YoY improvement of 4%.
But consumers also spread spending across the holiday period. Thirty-eight days saw online spending surpass $3 billion, compared with 25 days in 2020.
The data comes from Adobe Analytics, providing insights into more than one trillion visits to U.S. retail sites, 100 million SKUs, and 18 product categories.
Discounts still work. Across a number of key categories, discounts were breaking records too. In toys, discounts hit 34%, almost double the 2021 high. Discounts were also significant across electronics, computers and apparel.
While prices remained higher in gas, rent and food, ecommerce discounts sustained “discretionary spending,” according to Vivek Pandya, lead analyst, Adobe Digital Insights. “The big deals drew in consumers and drove volume.”
Dig deeper: Marketers need to be ‘always-on’ for holiday shopping
Why we care. Was there ever a time that the run-up to the holiday period didn’t feature months of trepidation? Will consumers have enough money left over from non-discretionary expenses to go shopping online? Will another disaster — a health crisis, a war, oil prices impacting distribution — wreck consumer confidence?
Looking back, the holiday marketing campaigns combined with smart discount strategies all seem to have been worth it again. Certainly there must be many consumers forced to reduce holiday spending to meet rent and heating bills. But there’s prosperity out there too.
Get MarTech! Daily. Free. In your inbox.
About the author
Kim Davis is the Editorial Director of MarTech. Born in London, but a New Yorker for over two decades, Kim started covering enterprise software ten years ago. His experience encompasses SaaS for the enterprise, digital- ad data-driven urban planning, and applications of SaaS, digital technology, and data in the marketing space.
He first wrote about marketing technology as editor of Haymarket’s The Hub, a dedicated marketing tech website, which subsequently became a channel on the established direct marketing brand DMN. Kim joined DMN proper in 2016, as a senior editor, becoming Executive Editor, then Editor-in-Chief a position he held until January 2020.
Prior to working in tech journalism, Kim was Associate Editor at a New York Times hyper-local news site, The Local: East Village, and has previously worked as an editor of an academic publication, and as a music journalist. He has written hundreds of New York restaurant reviews for a personal blog, and has been an occasional guest contributor to Eater.
