U.S. online retail spending passes $1 trillion for first time

A record-breaking fourth quarter helped make 2022 the highest single year ever of digital commerce in the United States.

U.S. digital spending rose roughly 11% to $1.09 trillion in 2022 from $904.3 billion in 2022, according to the annual “State of Digital Commerce” study from ComScore.

The top digital spending categories in 2022 were grocery (includes baby/pet) at $219 billion, apparel/accessories ($175 billion), and computers & peripherals $117.7 billion).

Meanwhile, the spending categories with the highest growth were event tickets (75%), digital content (60%) and apparel & accessories (37%).

Looking specifically at some interesting digital commerce trends in the fourth quarter of 2022, ComScore found that mobile commerce’s share of overall digital spending for the quarter reached an all-time high of 38%, or $127.5 billion. Desktop spending for the quarter reached $204.7 billion.

This represented 26% year-over-year growth in mobile commerce spending during the quarter, while desktop commerce spending increased 13.5%. Total digital commerce spending rose 18% year-over-year in the quarter.

Meanwhile, online holiday spending broke $200 billion during 2022, growing 20% from the 2021 holiday season. Mobile holiday spending totaled $92.6 billion, or about 46% of the total. As a result of early promotional efforts by retailers, November’s share of total quarterly digital spending rose from 38% to 44%.

Other interesting findings include:

• Online grocery spending rose 333% in four years, to $64 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022 from $14.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2018.
• TikTok views of U.S. retail and CPG videos rose 407% to 12.1 billion in 2022 from 2.4 billion in 2020.
• Eighty-six percent of U.S. consumers who had visited TikTok in the past month had also visited Amazon.
• Fans and followers of coupon rebate sites reached 19.2 million in December 2022, up 9% from 17.6 million in December 2019.

Adobe: Holidays, Prime Day set 2022 records

Data from Adobe indicates that record-breaking 2022 digital sales were bolstered by new heights in online spending during two key promotional periods – the holiday season and July’s Amazon Prime Day online sales extravaganza.

According to Adobe, online holiday sales from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31 totaled $211.7 billion, growing 3.5% year-over-year and reaching a new all-time high, according to Adobe Analytics. Cyber Week (the five days between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday) was a key contributor, driving $35.3 billion in online spend and growing 4% year-over-year.

In addition, Adobe Digital Economy Index data indicates total U.S. online spend across retailers reached an all-time high of $11.9 billion (including $6 billion on day one and $5.9 billion on day two), representing 8.5% growth compared to $11 billion in Prime Day total online revenue in 2021.

[Read more: Prime Day 2022 breaks records with $11.9 billion in sales]