Holiday shoppers spent more than $50B via smartphone

Dive Brief:

According to Adobe's Holiday 2019 Recap report, smartphones accounted for 84% of the holiday season's e-commerce growth. The period of November and December saw U.S. online spending totaling $142.5 billion, a 13.1% growth year over year. The report, which measured more than 1 trillion transactions from 80 of the top 100 retailers, also found that 67% of all visits and 48% of revenue on Christmas Day came from smartphones, a 15% and 34% increase respectively.
Consumers spent more than $50 billion on smartphones during the 2019 holiday season for the first time, according to the report. However, 50% of smartphone shoppers abandon their carts, compared to 33% of desktop shoppers.
During the 2019 holiday season, 45% of revenue in the apparel and footwear category came from smartphones and 46% of jewelry and cosmetics revenue came from smartphones, Adobe's findings show. The report also notes that smartphone shoppers spent $2.9 billion during Black Friday and $3 billion on Cyber Monday.

Dive Insight:

Previous reports from Bloomreach and Nosto have pointed to mobile as a significant source for boosts in fashion site traffic and overall Black Friday visits. Retailers that invested in their mobile capabilities also likely saw an increase in holiday sales, as the channel was critical to big shopping holidays this year. Adobe previously called 2019's Black Friday "the biggest day ever for mobile," stating that e-commerce giants with more than a billion dollars in annual revenue outperformed their smaller business counterparts.

Now that mobile is becoming a valuable traffic and revenue driver for retailers, Adobe offers some critical insights into which mobile channels are most effective. According to Adobe's report, 64% of revenue from social network sales came from smartphones and 49% of revenue from email newsletters came via smartphones.

"People are more connected today than ever before. We all have a smartphone in our pocket, and that is really what is driving the uptick in mobile commerce and e-commerce overall," said Jason Woosley, vice president of commerce product and platform at Adobe, in a statement emailed to Retail Dive. "This always-on and always connected trend will continue to accelerate, especially as the definition of mobility continues to expand to new devices and modes of accessing the Internet."