Thanksgiving Day online shopping surges

Getty/Sandy Huffaker

• This Thanksgiving
  Day is set to smash online sales records from previous
  years.
• Thanksgiving Day is predicted to reach a record
  $3.7 billion in online retail sales, up a whopping 29%
  from 2017, according to Adobe Analytics.
• Customers are turning to their phones increasingly to
  shop online, especially on a traditionally busy day filled with
  familial obligations.
• Sales started earlier this year, going live the night
  before Thanksgiving at popular destinations like
  Walmart.
• Other stores, like Amazon, have been running sales for
  nearly a week.

Thanksgiving is fast becoming one of America’s favorite days to
shop online.

Already, US shoppers have spent $1.75 billion online on
Thanksgiving (as of 5 p.m.), according to Adobe Analytics, and
are predicted to spend a record $3.7 billion by midnight.

That’s up a whopping 29% when compared to 2017. That’s a far
larger increase than the increases expected for Black
Friday and Cyber Monday: 17.2% and 17.6% growth year
over year, respectively.

Read more:

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Much of the growth has come from smartphones, which shoppers are
using with increasing frequency, especially on Thanksgiving,
according to Adobe. This year, smartphones have accounted
for 36.7% of all sales, up substantially over the 29.1%
share in 2017.

“Mobile stole the show Thanksgiving Day with smartphones
representing more than 50% of traffic to retail sites, as well as
record amount of revenue,” Taylor Schreiner, director
of Adobe Digital Insights, said in a prepared statement. “As
consumers turn their focus to Black Friday, we expect them to
take full advantage of the many discounts available, driving new
records for online sales.”

Many online sales started earlier this year, which may have
contributed to the drastically larger numbers. Walmart started
its Black Friday sales the night before Thanksgiving, while
Amazon has been offering Black Friday sales the entire week
leading up to the vaunted day.