Adobe: Holiday e-commerce beats expectations with record $257.8B
U.S. digital sales during the 2025 holiday season rose 7% to hit new heights.
Data from Adobe Analytics indicates that during the period covering Nov. 1 – Dec. 31, 2025, consumers spent $257.8 billion online at U.S. retail sites. This represented a 6.8% jump from $241.4 billion spent online at U.S. retail sites during the same period in 2024 and set a new record.
There were 25 days that saw $4 billion or more in spend in the 2025 holiday season, up from 18 days in 2024. Mobile shopping also hit a new milestone, with the majority of online transactions (56.4%) taking place through a smartphone, up from 54.5% in 2024.
Mobile shopping was highest on Christmas Day (Dec. 25), driving 66.5% of online sales (compared to 65% in 2024), followed by Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 27) at 61.6% mobile share (compared to 59.3% in 2024).
Record online spending this season was bolstered by a strong Cyber Week (the five days from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday), which brought in $44.2 billion online overall, up 7.7% year over year.
[READ MORE: Cyber Monday, Cyber Week online sales up roughly 7%]
Cyber Monday remained the biggest e-commerce day of the season (and year), driving $14.25 billion in online spend, up 7.1% year over year. Cyber Monday growth was outpaced by Black Friday ($11.8 billion, up 9.1% year over year), as consumers embraced earlier deals. On Thanksgiving Day, consumers spent $6.4 billion online, up 5.3% year over year.
In some jolly holiday news for digital retailers, returns were down 1.2% year over year during the holiday season. However, in the days following Christmas Day (Dec. 26 to Dec. 31), returns were up 4.7%, from the same period the prior year and one out of every seven returns during the season happened within this six-day timeframe.
Other findings
- Usage of the buy now, pay later flexible payment method hit an all-time high during the 2025 holiday season, contributing $20 billion in online spend, up 9.8% year over year and representing $2.8 billion more than the prior-year period.
- Traffic to retail sites from generative AI tools (shoppers clicking on a link to a retail site) increased by 693.4% year over year. On Cyber Monday, AI traffic to U.S. retail sites increased by 670%.
- Social media’s share of online holiday revenue came in in at 4.6%, up a significant 40.3% year over year (2024: 3.3% share, up 5.4% year over year). In affiliates and partners, which includes social media influencers, revenue share came in at 20.4%, up 15.9% year over year (2024: 17.6% share, up 6.0% year over year).
- Usage of curbside pickup slightly fell year-over-year to 17.1% of all online orders from 17.5% of all online orders. Curbside pickup peaked on Dec. 23, 2025 (the day before Christmas Eve), driving 39% of online orders.
"This 2025 holiday season, consumers embraced generative AI more than ever as a shopping assistant in their purchasing decisions," said Vivek Pandya, lead analyst, Adobe Digital Insights. "Competitive discounts and flexible payment options like BNPL also contributed to driving record spend of $257.8 billion throughout this holiday season."
Adobe Analytics data covers more than 1 trillion visits to U.S. retail sites, 100 million SKUs, and 18 product categories
