The accelerated shift to online shopping that occurred during the pandemic isn’t going away, … [+]
The pandemic boosted online spending by $183 billion over the past year, and it has permanently accelerated e-commerce, with Americans on track to spend $1 trillion online – a record amount – in 2022, according to a new report by Adobe.
The Adobe Digital Economy Index measured spending from the start of the pandemic, in March, 2020, through February 2021, and concluded that the surge in online spending isn’t likely to slow down.
In the first two months of this year, consumers already have spent $121 billion online, up 34% from the same period last year, according to the index, which uses Adobe Analytics to study data covering over one trillion visits to U.S. retail websites.
During the first 12 months of the pandemic, from March, 2020 to February, 2021, Americans spent $844 billion online. During 2020, which included pre-pandemic months, online spending rose 42% compared to 2019.
Adobe expects online spending this year, 2021, to total between $850 billion and $930 billion.
“We’re looking at a year, this year, that Covid 19 has completely reshaped. One that has changed who, what, were, how, and how frequently, and every other aspect of how people engage in commerce on the internet,” said Taylor Schreiner, direcctor, Adobe Digital Insights.
This is the first full-year Digital Economic Index report produced by Adobe. It began developing the index pre-pandemic, and launched it in April, 2020.
Adobe is predicting U.S. e-commerce sales will reach $1 trillion for the first time in 2022.
“We saw a real need in the marketplace for a set of economic indicators that are tailored to the digital economy, that are timely,” and that provide insight not just into how much was spent but what consumers bought, Schreiner said.
“It’s been very useful for us to have an eye on the digital economy as its been transforming so rapidly,” he said.
Adobe found that the pandemic produced what the report calls “a rare step change in online spending” that was equivalent to a 20% lift, or generating about $183 billion more in online sales than Adobe would have expected over the period studied.
“That’s like throwing a whole new online shopping season onto the year,” Schreiner said. “So everybody’s gone shopping, bought all of their Christmas gifts, everybody go back and do it again.”
In the 2020 holiday season, in November and December, consumers spent $188.2 billion online, according to Adobe.
Maine has seen the highest growth in e-commerce spending, while North Dakota has seen the least, … [+]
The report includes some interesting statistics about which regions of the country, and which states, have the most online shopping activity. The West was showing the most growth in February, up 34%. The Northeast saw the peakest one-month spike in sales in June, 2020, up 82% year-over-year.
Maine started 2021 with the highest e-commerce growth in January and February, up 67%, while North Dakota had the least amount of growth, up 16%.
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