3 holiday spending predictions: Online shopping to dominate a busy season

Despite an uncertain economic climate, retailers are preparing for an active holiday season highlighted by shoppers’ ongoing migration from in-store to online.

For the second year in a row, major retailers like Amazon, Target and Walmart have promoted early sales days as a way to spread traffic across a longer holiday shopping season, which accounts for roughly 19% of total annual retail sales.

Early results are encouraging, with Amazon reporting that its 48-hour “Prime Big Deal Days” “outpaced” last year’s event. According to the eCommerce giant, Prime members ordered more than 150 million items from third-party sellers during the second Prime Day event of the year, held October 10-11, 2023. This represented a significant increase over the 100 million items ordered during 2022’s event.

Regardless, households remain concerned with high prices and ballooning debt loads, leading many to prioritize obtaining everyday “essentials” over big-ticket purchases.

 

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