Report Expects Mobile Shopping Trend To Continue This Holiday Season

Even though the sun is still shining and the weather is still warm, the e-commerce world is already looking ahead to the holiday shopping season (Americans spend a LOT on Christmas). While most of us haven't begun to plan that far ahead, emerging trends could tell us more about how our holiday shopping season could go. More specifically, just how much of our shopping will be done online.

According to an FTI Consulting report, online retail sales (which includes desktop and mobile shopping sales) are projected to grow 9.8% in 2024 (hitting $1.2 trillion) in the U.S. Similarly, e-commerce sales growth accounted for 57% of total retail sales growth in the first quarter of the current year, proving how significant online shopping has become to the larger retail market.

However, even within the realm of online shopping, another more specific trend is on the rise. A 2022 Pew Research Center survey found that 32% of U.S. adults reported online shopping with their smartphones at least once a week (compared to just 21% who reported the same for their desktops). Since then, mobile shopping has only continued to grow. Adobe recently released e-commerce data showcasing the incredible rising demand for mobile shopping within the online shopping sphere.

In fact, per Adobe's report, there has been consistent growth in mobile spending for most of 2024, putting mobile shopping on par with desktop shopping even before the holidays arrive. This has led Adobe to predict that mobile spending will make up a majority of online sales this holiday season.

While this upcoming holiday season could see mobile shopping outweigh desktop in a significant way, it's a trend that's been a long time in the making. For instance, during the 2020 holiday season, 40% of online sales were driven by mobile shopping. Then, in 2021, this grew to 43%, and in 2023, mobile shopping overtook desktop shopping for the first time with 51% of all online sales. Adobe Analytics predicts this upcoming holiday season will see 53% of all online sales coming through a mobile device.

It's also worth mentioning that the mobile device in question is more than likely a smartphone, as opposed to a tablet. Two years ago, Pew Research Center found that 76% of U.S. adults made their purchases on their smartphone compared to just 28% on a tablet. It's also important to realize that this trend is not only limited to the holiday season. In fact, every month of 2024 has seen a higher year-over-year share of mobile shopping.

The mobile shopping share was 47.7% for the January to July 2024 period, compared to 46.6% for the same period in 2023. Plus, with every month, the share of online shopping belonging to mobile devices has consistently grown. In January 2024, mobile shopping comprised 46.7% of online sales compared to July 2024 when mobile made up 49.3%. When looking at the totals for January to July 2024, a record $280.4 billion was spent through mobile shopping. (On that note, it's never too early to start saving for your holiday shopping).

There are several factors contributing to the growth of mobile shopping, and a big one is the on-the- go strategy utilized by tech companies like Amazon (which has successfully ensured that Americans spend a lot every year on its site). Amazon Prime Day with its short-term lightning deals, as well as one-day sales or deals around big holidays like Memorial Day or the Fourth of July, can make it easy for consumers to quickly shop while doing something else or being somewhere else away from their home (and laptop). The mobile share of e-commerce sales across these kinds of events consistently outperform desktop shopping.

It's also worth mentioning that the kinds of items people are buying are increasingly changing the mobile share of online shopping. According to Adobe's research, personal care items and groceries are top performers for mobile-specific online shopping; 68.2% of online grocery sales in July 2024 were mobile purchases, with a combined online shopping total of $66.9 billion spent on groceries from January to July 2024 (a 15% increase year-over-year). Personal care items, meanwhile, most notably cosmetics, have been ahead of the current curve, with mobile purchases surpassing desktop purchases back in July 2019. In July 2024, 77% of all personal care items purchased online were purchased through a mobile phone.

On the flip side, only 21.5% of online electronics purchases happened on a mobile phone in July 2024, and only 33.3% of home improvement products. While these shares are an improvement over 2019 numbers, the growth rate for these two categories is decidedly slower.