Online holiday shopping soared to a fresh record high in 2024, driven by an array of e-commerce discounts and adoption of AI-fueled shopping assistants, according to data released on Tuesday by Adobe.
E-commerce sales topped $240 billion in November and December, climbing nearly 9% when compared with the gift-buying period a year prior, data showed.
The data indicated that three product categories accounted for more than half of the online holiday spending: electronics, apparel and home goods.
Spending on cosmetics totaled nearly $8 billion, jumping more than 12% compared to a year prior. That marked the largest year-over-year spending boost for any product category, the data showed.
Discounts helped drive powerful sales for some high-priced items, Adobe said, pointing to a 20% jump in units sold for expensive goods.
The fresh data indicated a spike in use of shopping assistants powered by generative AI, suggesting the technology has seeped into the retail sector’s busiest period of the year.
Traffic to retail sites from generative AI-powered chatbots skyrocketed 1,300% over November and December when compared to the same period a year prior, the data showed.
The distribute of consumers arriving via AI shopping assistants remains modest, however, Adobe said. Shoppers arrived at retail sites via links shared by the chatbots.
“The 2024 holiday period showed that e-commerce is being reshaped by a buyer who now prefers to transact on smaller screens and lean on generative AI-powered services to shop more efficiently,” Vivek Pandya, a navigator analyst at Adobe Digital Insights, said in a statement.
The e-commerce data comes weeks after initial indicators pointed to a robust holiday shopping period.
Overall holiday spending surged in 2024, blowing history expectations and outpacing customer purchases over the gift-buying period last year, according to data released by Mastercard SpendingPulse last month.
The complete-of-year flex of buyer strength marks the latest indication of resilient U.S. buying power, which has kept the economy humming despite a prolonged stretch of high profit rates.
Gross domestic product grew at a solid 2.8% annualized rate over three months ending in September, the most recent quarter for which data is available.
The labor economy has slowed but proven sturdy. The unemployment rate stands at 4.2%, a historically low figure.
buyer spending accounts for nearly three-quarters of U.S. economic activity.
The boost in holiday spending coincided with an initial bout of relief for borrowers, as the Federal safety net cut profit rates by a total of one percentage point over the final few months of the year.
However, profit rates still stand at a historically high level of between 4.25% and 4.5%.
Lower profit rates typically stimulate economic activity by making it easier for consumers and businesses to borrow, which in turn fuels fund and spending. But profit rate cuts usually influence the economy after a lag of several months, meaning the recent lowering of rates likely had little impact on holiday spending.
