Tag Archives: Christmas

The times we are living in are far from «normal.» But we cannot blame an invisible virus for all that is happening right now. The question for retailers now is how this holiday season will look like?

Online spending on Black Friday 2021 decreased for the first time ever. According to Adobe Analytics, online shoppers spent a total of $8,9 billion, and that is down a little bit from last year’s $9 billion.

It can be many reasons for the dip, but Adobe believes it can be caused by an uptick in early spending, as some stores started sales and promotions as early as October. Shoppers are also being strategic in their gift shopping, buying much earlier in the season and being flexible about when they shop to make sure they get the best deals.

Black Friday traffic in stores also dropped -28,3% from pre-pandemic levels. Cyber Monday did also have a bad day and dropped for the first time ever. Cyber Monday online sales drop -1,4% from last year to $10,7 billion.

Adobe expects the entire holiday season will see record-breaking e-commerce activity, as shoppers spread out their dollars over more days. Adobe anticipates digital sales from November 1^st, to December 31^st will hit $207 billion which would represent record gains of 10%.

FedEx forecasts Monday will be one of the highest volume e-commerce days of the 2021 holiday season as it prepares to deliver an estimated 100 million more packages than it did from Black Friday to Christmas in 2019.

According to National Retail Federation, the holiday season will be fine. Spending in November and December could grow as much as 11,5% compared with the same period a year ago. This is much higher than many retail analysts themselves had predicted.

Sales in November and December can hit an all-time high of between $834,4 billion and $859 billion. In other words; we`re on the path for a record holiday season. Omicron can destroy the holiday season, but it can also help.

Instead of taking a trip by plane to other places, consumers will spend their money on Target or Macy`s. That will boost consumer demand, helped by higher wages and inflation. A lockdown will increase online sales and put more pressure on FedEx. People want packages no matter what.