For the first 10 days of the holiday shopping season, U.S. consumers spent $21.7 billion online—a 21% year-over-year jump, according to Adobe Analytics. This likely stems from the fact that 63% of consumers are avoiding stores and buying more online, with health concerns due to the pandemic driving that decision for 81%, according to a new survey.

The last couple of weeks have been a rollercoaster for consumers—and it was reflected in their online shopping behaviors. U.S. consumers spent $2.2 billion on Nov. 2, the day before the U.S. presidential election, a 31% year-over-year increase. And they spent $2.0 billion on Nov. 3, Election Day, which was a 27% jump year over year, according to data from Adobe Analytics.

Adobe Analytics data is based on online sales data from more than one trillion anonymous visits to retail sites and more than 100 million SKUs from 80 of the top 100 retailers in the Digital Commerce 360 Top 1000. Adobe collects data on 18 product categories including apparel, electronics, home, grocery, appliance, personal care, office supplies, books, jewelry, furniture and toys, among others.

“Previous election cycles have shown that online growth tends to drop most notably on the day after the election,” says  Taylor Schreiner, director, Adobe Digital Insights. “Once a clearer picture of the election emerges in the coming days, we expect to see holiday shopping pick back up shortly after.”

And that prediction from last week appears to be true as shopping slowed on Nov. 4 and gradually increased as the week went on:

  • Wednesday, Nov. 4: U.S. consumers spent $1.9 billion, down 12% year over year.
  • Thursday, Nov. 5: U.S. consumers spent $1.9 billion, down 2% year over year.
  • Friday, Nov. 6: U.S. consumers spent $2.1 billion, up 9% year over year.
  • Saturday, Nov. 7: U.S. consumers spent $1.9 billion, up 11% year over year.
  • Sunday, Nov. 8: U.S. consumers spent $2.5 billion, up 26% year over year.
  • Monday, Nov. 9: U.S. consumers spent $2.4 billion, up 24% year over year.
  • Tuesday, Nov. 10, U.S. consumers spent $2.5 billion, up 27% year over year.

With the first 10 days of the holiday season underway, Adobe says consumers have spent $21.7 billion online—a 21% year-over-year increase. Adobe also expects traditional big discount days, such as Thanksgiving through Cyber 5, to grow 35-40% year over year.

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“Unpredictable factors, including an economic stimulus package and new lockdown restrictions, are excluded from our forecast,” Schreiner says. “If they materialize, we expect online spending to be even greater.”

U.S. consumers are poised to spend $198.73 billion with online retailers this holiday season, Digital Commerce 360 projects. That would be a 43.3% year-over-year jump from $138.65 billion for the same November-December period in 2019.

This stems from the fact that the 2020 season will be set against a dramatically different backdrop, as COVID-19 has caused shoppers to limit store visits and instead order more items online.

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In fact, 63% of consumers are currently avoiding stores, with health concerns due to the pandemic driving that decision for 81%, according to an Oct. 26 survey of 2,000 U.S. consumers by customer service software provider Qudini, which works with retailers such as Nike Inc. (No. 24 in the Top 1000), Burberry Ltd. (No. 84 in the Digital Commerce 360 Europe 500) and Tesco Stores (No. 4 in Europe 500).

51% of respondents are visiting stores less because they’re buying more online. Consumers also are avoiding stores because they’re worried about other shoppers not wearing masks (56%), getting too close to other shoppers (55%), touching products that others have touched (45%) and having to wear a mask (28%), according to the Qudini survey.

Another large concern shoppers have going into the busy holiday shopping season is waiting in long lines inside or outside retail stores. 47% of shoppers surveyed by Qudini are worried about contracting COVID-19 when waiting in lines, 35% say they’re uncomfortable standing too long in lines, 34% dislike not knowing how long they will have to wait, 28% do not want to waste time standing in line and 26% are concerned about weather conditions if they have to wait outside.

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The survey revealed that shoppers were also more likely to purchase from a retailer that employed omnichannel services, such as in-store appointments, curbside pickup and virtual appointments. These options would make the respondents more likely to feel safer and happier (54%), think better of the retailer (54%), return to the retailer (53%), visit the retailer (50%), choose that brand over the competition for future purchases (48%), buy something online (47%) and buy something in a store (45%).

U.S. consumers ranked the omnichannel options by usefulness in the following order:

  • Virtual appointments: 45%
  • Virtual wait line system: 20%
  • Contactless curbside pickup: 20%
  • In-store appointments: 18%
  • Hosts with tablets: 18%

“The outbreak has driven a huge surge in interest for all tools, particularly virtual appointments and curbside pickup,” says Imogen Wethered, CEO and co-founder of Qudini. “However, the insights also suggest that many of these solutions were interesting to customers before the outbreak and suggest that the pandemic could be a catalyst for retailers to implement these tools, which will remain after the pandemic.”

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