Online holiday revenue is up 15.8% YOY, totaling $50.1 billion in comparable sales between Nov. 1 and Nov. 26, according to tracking from Adobe Analytics.
Email promotions have accounted for 16.5% of all online revenue, a 10% increase over the same period in the prior year.
However, paid search is still the biggest sale driver, generating 23.7% of all sales so far this season.
In contrast, social media has delivered only 2.8% of retail site revenue, in part because it tends to be more focused on gift ideas and information gathering than driving sales.
Adobe reports that 61% of online shoppers plan to take advantage of same day shipping or BOPIS (buy online, pickup in store). Spending in this area has grown by 27.0% over last year.
In addition, 34.3% of all ecommerce sales have been made on a smartphone, a 24.2% rise over last year. And, in a phenomenon Adobe calls under-the-table shopping, one in five online consumers will be shopping on smartphones so friends and family won’t notice them doing it.
A fourth of shoppers have already completed their online purchases. The remainder expect deep discounts across the board on Thanksgiving Day.
Average discounts of 17.5% have been seen for televisions, 14.6% for computers and 8.7% for toys.
Adobe forecasts total online sales of $4.4 billion on Thanksgiving (up 19.7% YoY) and $7.5 billion (20.5% YoY) on Black Friday (a 20.5% increase).
Black Friday should hit $9.4 billion in sales, a 19.1% increase and a new record, according to Adobe.