E-Commerce Strong: Black Friday 2022 Sets Record High

This Black Friday e-commerce broke $9 billion in sales for the first time, setting a record figure of $9.12 billion for the day per TechCrunch’s report on figures from Adobe Analytics. This number is up 2.3% compared to last year and is slightly higher than Adobe’s original estimations. But, we don’t really know the role inflation plays in those numbers – are people actually buying more, or are they just paying higher prices? 

Thanksgiving day e-commerce also showed higher numbers than estimated…

…with shoppers spending $5.29 billion online during turkey day. The way we shop during this period has changed massively. Thanks to mobile phones, you don’t even have to leave the Thanksgiving table to place some orders between bites of green bean casserole. 55% of online sales were made from mobile devices on Thursday, up 8.3% from a year ago. 

By the end of the holiday shopping season… 

…Adobe puts consumer spending at $210 billion, a 2.5% growth over last year. While these revenues are high, they don’t come close to the 32% growth the e-commerce industry saw in 2020. Cyber Monday and the rest of this week will see an additional $34.8 billion, up 2.8% from last year, Adobe predicts. 

What are people buying anyway? 

Here are some of the products that are flying off the virtual shelves according to Adobe Analytics. 

• Xbox Series X
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
• Drones
• Macbooks 
• Paw Patrol
• Instapots

Alongside Modest Growth, there are still supply chain issues to contend with.

As we wrote last week, the threat of a rail labor strike could deal a heavy blow to a slowly recovering supply chain. Retailers are still dealing with excess inventory and hope to clear out warehouse space before the next season, especially for apparel. So for now, everyone is still moving cautiously during this unpredictable time.