• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, January 7, 2025

Image: Best Buy

Adobe’s final look at online sales for the holiday reveals trends many retailers may have missed in the seasonal mayhem. As mobile shopping continued to dominate, shoppers increasingly used AI tools to navigate their smaller screens. And paid search was again the No. 1 way to reach them.

With November and December online sales topping a record $241.4 billion, an 8.7% gain from 2023, it was the most mobile yet. Smartphones drove 54.5% of online purchases, up from 51.1% in 2023. And while relatively few people are using generative AI-powered chatbots, such as Amazon’s Rufus, Adobe’s research finds that 70% of those who have used these tools believe it enhances their experience.

“The 2024 holiday season showed that ecommerce is being reshaped by a consumer who now prefers to transact on smaller screens and lean on generative AI-powered services to shop more efficiently,” says Vivek Pandya, lead analyst, Adobe Digital Insights, in the report. “It presents opportunities for retailers to deliver new services and experiences that capture the attention of consumers, many of whom are now shopping online in different ways.”

The San Jose, California-based company’s data is based on 1 trillion visits to U.S. retail sites, 100 million SKUs and 18 product categories.

Strength in just three categories fueled more than half of the growth: electronics (up 8.8% from the prior year), apparel (up 9.9%), and furniture/home goods up 6.8%). Grocery and cosmetics both grew by more than 12%. 

Retailers knew cutting prices would be the best way to lure buyers this season, and the strategy paid off. Adobe’s data indicates that for every 1% decrease in price, demand increased by 1.029% compared to the 2023 season. That translates into an additional $2.25 billion in online spending.

Steeper discounts tempted consumers to splurge on higher-ticket items. “This season, the share-of-units-sold for the most expensive goods increased by 21%,” the report notes. That represents a 54% increase in sporting goods, 48% in electronics, 35% in appliances, 32% in personal care products, and 10% in apparel.

Paid search advertising remains the most powerful, with a 29.7% share of revenue, up 1% from the prior year. Affiliates and partners, including social media influencers, are coming on strong, with a 17.6% share of revenue, up 6%.