Thanksgiving 2016 is officially here and while people celebrate the spirit of togetherness, they are also turning to online shopping to indulge themselves during the holiday weekend.
According to a report by Adobe Digital Insights — which is tracking the e-commerce purchases real time — by 5 p.m. ET on Nov. 24 i.e. Thanksgiving Day, online sellers have raked in a whopping $1.15 billion in sales. This was in just a few hours — between midnight and 5 p.m. ET.
This figure is an increase of 13.6 percent when compared with the same period in 2015. Of the $1.15 billion spent, an astounding $449 million was spent by consumers using their mobile devices — $322 million via smartphones and $127 million through tablets — which is an increase from 2015 by 58.6 percent. While users may be getting tech savvy and reliant on their mobile devices, desktop users accounted for the maximum amount spent and shopped for $702 million.
Adobe estimates that online sales on Thanksgiving Day will easily touch the $2 billion mark, which will be a first. This signals a year-over-year growth of 15.6 percent.
"Thanksgiving Day is still on track to either hit or come close to $2 billion, although heavy discounting seen in the early hours of the day has slowed revenue growth," reports Adobe.
The firm forecasts that $820 million in revenue for e-retailers will be generated through mobile devices.
This year, e-retailers have deeply discounted consumer goods when compared with 2015. For example, on average, tablet prices have been marked down over 25.1 percent when compared with the 12.2 percent during Thanksgiving 2015. Additionally, per Adobe, toys, TVs and pet care products "are seeing much larger discounts than last year."
Adobe's figures are based on tracking nearly 21 billion visits to retail websites. The visit studies are both aggregated, as well as anonymized ones and covers nearly 80 percent of the online transactions for Top 100 retailers in the United States.
Thanksgiving 2016 Trends
A continuing trend from Thanksgiving 2015 is that more and more people use their tablets and smartphones for browsing online stores. The fact that these are portable and more convenient to use — without seeming anti-social — is possibly fueling the pattern.
Nearly 54 percent of the visits to online stores were through mobile devices, of which 44 percent were via smartphones and 10 percent from tablets. However, when it came to purchasing products online, only 39 percent bought through their tablet or smartphones. This suggests that people are still using desktops to make online purchases.
Another notable trend that continues from previous years is that users of iOS devices indulge in purchases of higher value vis-à-vis Android users. This figure stands at $144 on average for an iOS device user and $119 for an Android device user.
Which Are The Top Selling Products?
The best online sales have been generated by consumer electronics. The top-selling consumer electronic products have been PlayStation 4 gaming consoles, the iPad and 4K TVs from Samsung. When it comes to toys, electric scooters for children, Lego Dimensions and Shopkins rule the roost.
Products that have a high risk of being out of stocks include NES Classic Edition, Hatchimals, PS VR Launch Bundles, PJ Masks, Speak Out Game, New Nintendo 3DS Super Mario and Cozmo by Anki.
