On Tuesday Eastern Time, data from Adobe showed that during the 2024 holiday shopping season (from November 1 to December 31), e-commerce sales in the USA reached a new high, with total spending hitting 241.4 billion USD, an increase of 8.7% year-on-year. This growth was mainly driven by discount promotions and AI-driven shopping assistants effectively stimulating consumer purchasing desires. Despite inflation pressures prompting consumers to tighten spending and prioritize necessities, the data indicates that consumers are still willing to increase spending at specific times.

The strong performance of e-commerce is a good sign for the Retail Trade sector. Although companies have yet to release specific sales figures, retail giants like Walmart, Target, and Macy's will begin releasing their fourth quarter Earnings Reports in late February, at which point they will announce sales performance including the key shopping season, helping investors better assess the overall performance of the 2024 holiday shopping season and its impact on Retail Trade.

The effects of discount promotions are significant.

This data is based on an in-depth analysis by Adobe Analytics of over 1 trillion visits to US retail websites, 0.1 billion unique commodities, and 18 different product categories.

Adobe pointed out that the increase in online consumption is driven by rising demand rather than price hikes. Adobe's digital price index shows that the prices of e-commerce commodities have been declining on a month-to-month basis for 27 consecutive months. In fact, Adobe's data is not adjusted for inflation; if inflation factors are considered, actual consumption growth may be even higher.

Under inflation pressure, consumers are beginning to tighten spending and prioritize necessities. Vivek Pandya, Chief Analyst at Adobe Digital Insights, stated that due to high food and housing prices, consumers are waiting for specific times to purchase non-essentials in hopes of securing lower prices. He described this pattern as 'event-based shopping.'

Pandya explained: 'At certain specific moments and opportunities, we see consumers significantly increase spending because they perceive value. Outside of these periods, growth recedes. For example, consumers shop during Amazon's Prime Day events or promotional days like Presidents' Day and Memorial Day.'

Adobe's data shows that significant discounts are a key factor driving holiday shoppers' Consumer behavior. Compared to the 2023 holiday season, a 1% price reduction leads to approximately a 1% increase in Commodity demand, contributing an additional $2.25 billion to online spending.

AI shopping assistants are emerging as a new driving force.

Adobe also pointed out that AI shopping assistants have become a new factor driving holiday Consumer spending. Retail website traffic using generative AI chatbots surged by 1300% compared to the same period last year. Consumers are increasingly turning to this technology for gift ideas and cheaper Commodities.

Adobe Analyst Vivek Pandya stated that although the AI technology is still in its early stages and the user base is relatively limited, these chatbots are already beginning to have a significant impact on retail website clicks and purchase volumes. Pandya noted, 'Consumers are very strategic; they carefully consider where to buy, when to buy, and which products are the best value. In this process, generative AI assistants are helping consumers and becoming their 'co-pilot' in the shopping journey.'

Smart Phones played a central role in the 2024 holiday shopping season, with a continuous increase in mobile shopping proportion. Adobe's data shows that over 55% of E-Commerce purchases were completed via Smart Phone, rather than laptops or other devices. This proportion has risen from about 51% in the same period last year.

Additionally, 'buy now, pay later' as a credit option allowing consumers to make purchases in installments showed strong growth in this holiday shopping season. According to Adobe's Statistics, the usage of this payment method increased by 9.6% year-on-year, contributing $18.2 billion to online Consumer spending, setting a historical high for the holiday season.

It is worth mentioning that Cyber Monday set the single-day consumption record for the 'buy now, pay later' payment method, reaching $0.9912 billion in spending on that day.

Sales structure: electronics, outfits, and housewares dominate.

During the holiday shopping season, discounts on electronic products are the largest, reaching up to 30.1% off the standard price. Toys come next, with discounts as high as 28%; the maximum discount for televisions is 24.2%; and outfits have a highest discount of 23.2%. Overall, electronic products, outfits, and housewares are the three main consumer categories during the holiday season, accounting for about 54% of total online spending, indicating that consumers still prefer these traditional popular categories during the holiday season.

At the same time, the fastest-growing categories year-on-year are grocery and cosmetics, with the former growing nearly 13% to reach $21.5 billion, and the latter increasing by 12.2% to reach $7.7 billion.