1% of Items Draw 76% of Online Dollars
As millions of online shoppers swipe and tap their way down their Christmas shopping lists this year, two categories are forecast to account for most of people’s projected $83 billion in spending: electronics and gift cards.
Based on an analysis of more than 1 trillion visits to retail websites, Adobe predicts that 76 percent of online sales during the holiday season will be rung up from just 1 percent of items. Some 60 percent of those sales will be electronics, Adobe expects, and 10 percent will be gift cards. Even outside of November and December, Adobe finds that 65 percent of online sales go to 1 percent of items.
These findings underscore how unevenly the impact of e-commerce has been felt throughout the retail industry. In the electronics category, where it is particularly easy to comparison shop online, consumers have been especially willing to pony up in the digital channel. But other categories, such as jewelry and home goods, so far have been less affected by the rise of online shopping, perhaps a sign that shoppers still like to touch and test out these kinds of items before they spend on them.
