Overview
- U.S. e-commerce sales reached $257.8 billion from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31, up 6.8% year over year, topping Adobe’s forecast but slowing from last year’s 8.7% gain.
- Traffic from generative AI tools to retailer sites surged 693.4% from 2024, with Adobe crediting AI assistants for helping shoppers find deals and complete purchases.
- Smartphones accounted for 56.4% of transactions, signaling a firmly mobile-first holiday shopping season.
- Buy-now-pay-later spending hit a record $20 billion, up 9.8% from 2024, including $1.03 billion on Cyber Monday.
- Salesforce estimates $1.29 trillion in global online holiday sales and reports AI and agents influenced about 20% of retail revenue, while returns reached $181 billion, or 14% of purchases.