Yahoo Finance Shortened holiday shopping season to yield record sales, Adobe says
Holiday shopping is expected to set another record despite a shortened season, according to a new forecast from Adobe Analytics.
With Thanksgiving falling on Nov. 28 this year, retailers will have six fewer shopping days, translating to almost $1 billion in revenue left behind. Retailers, however, are already getting a head start, especially when it comes to those early online deal drops.
The bright spot this year will be e-commerce, with online shopping poised to outpace traditional retail growth by more than 10%, Adobe said. Online shopping is expected to grow 14.1% compared to conventional retail's projected 4% rise, the report found.
U.S. shoppers are expected to spend $143.7 billion online — or just over $1 out of every $5 spent. The online spend each day in November and December is forecasted to surpass $1 billion, according to Adobe. And one of the biggest drivers of that growth will be smartphone shopping, accounting for 47% of that growth, or about $14 billion.
About 20% of that online shopping, or approximately $29 billion, will take place during the five days between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, known as "Cyber Week."
Meanwhile, Thanksgiving Day will see $4.4 billion in online spending — or a 19.5% year-over-year leap — while Black Friday will likely see $7.5 billion in online revenues or a 20.3% jump.
Meanwhile, Cyber Monday is expected to pull in $9.4 billion or an 18.9% increase over last year's event. The most popular timeframe, known as the "golden hours of retail," will take place between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. PT that day, accounting for 30% of Cyber Monday's revenue, according to the report.
While online retail will see tremendous growth overall, the "clear winners" will be web retail giants, according to Adobe. Those more prominent players are expected to see revenue jump 65% during the final two months of the year, while the smaller e-commerce sites will see a 35% bump.
What's more, shoppers looking for the best deals can likely find discounts of about 9% on appliances and 6% on sporting goods on Black Friday and savings of about 32% on toys and 18% on computers that Sunday.
The best time to buy a TV is on Cyber Monday when shoppers can find savings of 19%, while furniture and bedding can drop 10% on Tuesday.
And some of the best deals are usually seen after Christmas on Dec. 27, Adobe noted, with savings on electronics of 27%.
Julia La Roche is a Correspondent at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.
