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Americans to Spend More Than $126 Billion Online This Holiday

Americans to Spend More Than $126 Billion Online This Holiday

(Bloomberg) -- When it comes to online orders this Christmas, U.S. consumers are spending more than ever before.

Shoppers shelled out a record $110.6 billion online between Nov. 1 and Dec. 19, about $17 billion more than in the same period last year, data from Adobe Analytics show. And with so-called Super Saturday -- the last Saturday before Christmas -- still ahead, total internet spending for the final two months of the year is expected to hit at least $126 billion, an all-time high.

Half of website traffic this year came from shoppers on the go using their smartphones, Adobe said, but most Americans still prefer to close the deal using their computers. Sixty-one percent of the dollars spent online came from purchases made via desktops this year, even as more people are increasingly browsing from the ease of their palm.

Americans to Spend More Than $126 Billion Online This Holiday

Shoppers are emboldened to spend more this season as consumer confidence grows, gas prices fall and wages rise. The Adobe report measured transactions from 80 of the top 100 U.S. online retailers.

“Weary holiday shoppers continue to look for alternatives to crowded stores, long lines and empty shelves in the final push to Christmas,” said Taylor Schreiner, director of digital insights at Adobe. “Retailers who can offer the easiest shopping experience, whether through excellent use of data to anticipate shoppers’ needs or by providing an option for picking up products at brick-and-mortar stores, are the ones people are flocking to this week.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Hema Parmar in New York at hparmar6@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anne Riley Moffat at ariley17@bloomberg.net, Cecile Daurat

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.