Holiday shoppers go online

New data indicates that online is proving to be a prominent commerce channel this holiday season.

According to the “Holiday 2022: U.S. Digital Shopping Update” from Coresight Research and Bolt Commerce, 82% of surveyed U.S. consumers are likely or highly likely to use online search platforms to seek inspiration and search for holiday gifts. Three in four (74%) surveyed U.S. consumers are likely or highly likely to use online search platforms to purchase holiday gifts.

During the fourth quarter of 2022, Coresight Research estimates total retail sales will reach $1.33 trillion. This represents a 6% increase from $1.25 trillion in total retail sales during the fourth quarter of 2021. Coresight Research expects 24% of retail sales in the fourth quarter of 2022 will occur online, a 20% increase from the same quarter of 2021.

The update also examined the performance of the “Cyber Five,” or the five days between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday (Nov. 24-28) in 2022, finding:

• Online retail sales totaled $5.3 billion on Thanksgiving, up 3.9% year-over-year.
• Online retail sales reached $9.1 billion on Black Friday, increasing 2.2% year-over-year.
• Online retail sales equaled $11.3 billion on Cyber Monday, rising 5.6% year-over-year.
• During the entire Cyber Five period, average cart size was 3.2 items per order, the same as 2021.
• Across the Cyber Five period, gross merchandise value (GMV) increased by around 2% from 2021.
• Throughout the Cyber Five period, average order value (AOV) increased by around 15% from 2021.

Coresight Research and Bolt Commerce have also observed the following broader trends during the 2022 holiday shopping period:

• There have been deep discounts online, including in toys, electronics and apparel.
• Retailers have continued to adopt technology solutions such as e-commerce management, flexible payments, personalization and experiential retail.
• Shoppers are embracing flexible payments in an uncertain economic environment.

Retailers beat inflation with online holiday discounts

Recent Salesforce analysis showed that average discount rates spiked during Cyber Week, topping pre-pandemic levels at 30% in the U.S. Strong customer response to Cyber Week price cuts confirmed previous Salesforce predictions that consumers were delaying holiday purchases in a game of “discount chicken” with online retailers, assuming the best deals would come during Cyber Week.

In addition, recent data from Ware2Go, a UPS company, shows that about half of consumers can be enticed to make online holiday purchases via incentives such as deal days, coupons or promotions on online products.