Thanksgiving shopping will spike online, Adobe says

Thanksgiving dinner might be more busy with shopping
than ever.
AP/Orlin
Wagner

• Shoppers will take advantage of early Black
  Friday deals on their phones during Thanksgiving,
  according to a holiday forecast by Adobe Analytics.
• Smartphones are predicted to drive 35% of all purchases
  on Thanksgiving. That’s compared with only 30% on Black Friday
  and 25% on Cyber Monday.
• Smartphones were the star of the show on Thanksgiving
  last year as well, driving nearly half of the traffic to
  retailers’ websites.
• Online shoppers are getting more comfortable with
  buying on their phones as retailers improve the checkout and
  browsing experience and add features like Apple Pay.

This Thanksgiving, more dinner guests than ever will be dipping
under the table, looking for online shopping deals on their
phones.

Smartphones are predicted to drive 35% of all purchases on
Thanksgiving, according to a holiday forecast by Adobe Analytics.
That’s compared with only a 30% share on Black Friday and 25% on
Cyber Monday.

That’s good for a 20% increase in predicted revenue from
customers shopping on smartphones on Thanksgiving, a steeper
increase than the 16% increase predicted for both Black Friday
and Cyber Monday, according to Adobe. 

Adobe

Adobe’s predictions are derived from AI and machine learning
using the company’s data on trillions of retail website visits
and transactions from 80 of the top 100 online retailers. Adobe
also made use of a survey of more than 1,000 US consumers.

Smartphones were
also the star of the show on Thanksgiving last year,
driving nearly half of the traffic to retailers’ websites — a 17%
increase from 2016. 

Smartphone shopping is a big opportunity for retailers, as the
devices are predicted to be the biggest traffic drivers to
retailers’ websites, at 48.3%, but still drive only 27.2% of
revenue from shoppers actually completing purchases, according to
Adobe.

Signs point to shoppers becoming increasingly comfortable with
shopping on their phones, however. Revenue for online retailers
will grow 11.6% year-over-year during the holiday season,
according to Adobe. 

One explanation for the increase is a proliferation of retailer
apps, which make shopping and checking out easier on smaller
devices. Many also incorporate features like Apple Pay, which
make checkout as easy as unlocking your phone.

Overall, retailers are likely to see a healthy amount of growth
online for the holiday season. Adobe is predicting that $124.1
billion will be spent online for a 14.8% growth over last year’s
number for November and December.