• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, over 1 hour ago

Marketing teams are sure to celebrate when their emails help drive increased holiday sales. But those revenue figures may go down as returns pour in. 

Here is some good news: returns were down by 2.5% in the period from November 2 to December 12, according to data released by Adobe. And in the critical seven days following Cyber Week, returns fell by 0.1%.  

The study also shed light on how consumers handle returns. They prefer mobile devices for shopping, but use desktop for returns. From November to December 12, 42.4% of online spend occurred on mobile, versus 39.1% of returns. 

It is not yet clear why this is happening. Other studies have shown that consumers are spending more carefully this year because they are concerned about the economy.

It is also not clear whether shoppers or gift recipients are driving most of these returns, but statistics suggest the latter.  

Last year, one out of every eight returns took pace in the final days of the month, from December 26 to December 31. Adobe expects this trend to continue this year. 

Adobe expects returns to rise by 25% to 35% in that period this year -- and levels to rise from 8% to 15% during the first two weeks of January.

Ecommerce brands have reduced their discounts from those of Cyber Week, but are still offering breaks in these categories: toys (15%), furniture and bedding (10), televisions (10), electronics (9), computers (8%), apparel (8%), appliances (7%) and sporting goods (6).   

Meanwhile, consumers have spent $187.3 billion from November 1 to December 12 -- a 6.1% increase YoY.

Adobe is projecting that online spending will exceed $250 billion for the year, which is a 5.3% boost YoY.

Shoppers still favor Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL), with the total hitting $13.9 billion in the earlier part of the season -- a 6% boost YoY.