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Jessica Sherer
/(Industry Research)

Online holiday shopping has a long history of setting and breaking records, and the 2023 season was no different. Using stats from Salesforce, Digital Commerce 360 reported that global online sales grew by 3%, and total global online sales reached $1.17 trillion. Within the U.S., online spending hit a new record at $222.1 billion, according to Adobe Analytics, and grew by 4.9% year-over-year (YoY).

Chart that shows online holiday sales growth 2018 through 2023, courtesy of Digital Commerce 360

Chart courtesy of Digital Commerce 360

Trends for 2023 holiday sales

The data also revealed several trends for 2023. Here a few of the most prominent:

  • Despite concerns about inflation, holiday shoppers spent anyway
  • Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) services (e.g., Klarna, Affirm, and Afterpay) were more popular than in previous years
  • Holiday shopping started earlier in 2023, thereby extending the season
  • Retailers offered record discounts this year
  • Mobile shopping overtook desktop shopping for the first time

Let’s take a deeper dive into how these trends played out.

Chart that shows online holiday sales in November through December 2023, courtesy of Digital Commerce 360

Chart courtesy of Digital Commerce 360

Spending despite inflation

Holiday online spending growth in 2022 was 3.5% YoY, but for the same period in 2023, the growth was 4.9%. This growth took place primarily in these top five categories:

  • Electronics ($50.8 billion)
  • Apparel ($41.5 billion)
  • Furniture ($27.3 billion)
  • Groceries ($19.1 billion)
  • Toys ($7.7 billion)

These numbers show that shoppers were not overly bothered by the fact that consumer prices in the U.S. rose 3.4% annually at the end of 2023.

BNPL services and other payment options

Many buyers chose to finance their holiday shopping in 2023 with Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) services. In November, U.S. consumers spent $9.2 million online using BNPL, an increase of 17.5% YoY. On Cyber Monday alone, shoppers spent $940 million via BNPL, up a whopping 42.5%. In total, BNBL sales accounted for $16.6 billion in online holiday spending.

Still, credit cards were the most popular way to pay online at 72% of purchases. PayPal came in a distant second at 13%. Interestingly, Wallet Pay saw the most growth as a form of payment in the U.S. with an increase of 47%.

Team Glances covers industry statistics from the 2023 holiday online shopping season

A longer holiday shopping season

Believe it or not, holiday shopping is now beginning in October. In 2023, retailers like Amazon and Walmart started their holiday marketing in October, putting pressure on other merchants to begin their campaigns sooner, too.

In fact, retail data research company Gartner has noticed a trend toward shopping for winter holidays all year long. They anticipate that by 2026, 30% of consumers will do holiday shopping year round.

Record discounts in 2023

In 2022, discounts on electronics peaked at 25% off listed price. In 2023, discounts went as high as 31%. People shopping for apparel enjoyed discounts of 24% versus the 19% offered in 2022.

Other ecommerce categories hit record-high discounts: Appliances, sporting goods, and furniture. And while the average discount percentage peaked during Cyber Week at 27%, many discounts lingered into the following week where the average percentage off listed price was 20%.

Many retailers changed the way they notified shoppers of these sales in 2023. Push/SMS/OTT marketing campaigns grew by 41% YoY whereas email marketing campaigns grew by only 6% YoY. Still, paid search remained the largest influence on ecommerce sales in 2023; 29.4% of all online purchases were attributed to that channel.

Mobile shopping vs. desktop shopping

Perhaps the biggest shift of all this past holiday season was the transition to mobile shopping over desktop shopping. For the first time, more consumers made purchsaes from their mobile devices than from their computers. In 2023, 51.1% of online shoppers used smartphones to buy gifts, particularly at the last minute. Mobile shopping was highest on Christmas Day.

Take charge of the 2024 holiday shopping season

Yes, it’s only the first quarter, but it’s not too soon to start thinking about how to best prepare for holiday shopping in 2024. It’s sure to continue the trend of breaking records.

Whether you use email marketing tools like Mailchimp, online store platforms like Shopify, or payment processing apps like Stripe, Glances connects all these apps—and many more—helping you cut down on busy work and stress no matter what time of year it is. Integrate your entire tech stack using our no-code platform that securely shows your data in a single view from anywhere online. And with Glances Actions, you can complete tasks across apps, thereby virtually eliminating tab-switching.

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