U.S. consumers opened their wallets during the 2024 holiday season, spending $241.4bn, or 8.7% more than they did the year before. That’s according to Adobe, the software giant, which released online shopping data for the Nov. 1 to Dec. 31 period. Adobe indicated that its findings are based on analyzing more than 1 trillion visits to U.S. retail sites, 100mn stock keeping units and 18 product categories. Adobe indicated that mobile shopping hit a new milestone, with 54.5% of the transactions taking place through a smartphone this season, up from 51.1% in 2023.

According to Adobe, of the $241.4bn spent online this holiday season, 54% was driven by electronics ($55.3bn, up 8.8% year-over-year), apparel ($45.6bn, up 9.9% year-over-year) and furniture/home goods ($29.2bn, up 6.8% year-over-year). Adobe also reported that the strongest growth was observed in grocery ($21.5bn, up 12.9% year-over-year) and cosmetics ($7.7bn, up 12.2%, year-over-year). Sporting goods had $7.8bn in sales online, up 7.4%, and toys had $8.2bn in sales online, up 7.8%. Among the drivers of the holiday business online were strong discounts by retailers luring ‘increasingly price-sensitive’ shoppers. The software firm also concluded from its data that for every 1% decrease in price, demand increased by 1.03% compared to the 2023 season. This drove an additional $2.25bn in online spend, which is factored into the overall $241.4bn spent online, Adobe noted.