Though Halloween hasn't even gone down yet, the holiday shopping fracas will, inevitably, ramp up as soon as November kicks off. Perhaps you haven't started thinking about your gifting strategy for this season (or, let's be real, maybe you never will have much of a "strategy," which is completely okay, too) — lucky for us, the number-crunching folks at Adobe have some intel on when to shop for what, as well as some projections about just how much cash we're expected to dole out this season to shower our loved ones with crap they don't need...err, the best, most thoughtful gifts, ever.
For its annual Digital Insights Shopping Predictions report, Adobe surveyed more than 1,000 people, looked at 4,500 retailers' sites, examining a trillion visits and 55 million SKUs (a.k.a. style numbers), as well as analyzing 75 million social media mentions. (You can check out last year's results, here.) In case you weren't quite convinced that e-comm is killing it these days, consider this: Online shopping is expected to increase 11% this year over last year, amounting to a projected record of $91 billion worth of gifts put into our digital carts. Apparently, Cyber Monday is slated to be the biggest online shopping day, not just of 2016, but in history. Landing on November 28, the online shopping bonanza that's basically tailored to a tryptophan hangover is expected to amass $3.36 billion this year, a 9.4% increase over last year's Cyber Monday revenues. Plus, there's a lot of post-Thanksgiving-weekend shopping taking place on-the-go, not just in cubicles: "Cyber Monday has historically been thought of as the day that consumers return to work and shop for great deals from their desktops, but this year we actually saw 26% year-over-year growth in terms people using mobile devices to shop for deals," Luiz Maykot, a data science analyst on the Adobe Digital Insights team, told Refinery29. If you'll be opting for fashion purchases, be it for your family, friends, or, let's be real, yourself, you'll want to shop on November 22, when apparel is slated to be around 20% off and there's still a solid chance you'll still find the sizes you want. Wait just a couple days, until Black Friday (a.k.a. November 25) and the selection on fashion goods is likely to be completely obliterated or picked-over at best. "November 22 is the sweet spot for apparel shopping, because it has high discounts and products are still in stock; out-of-stock incidence doubles beginning on Thanksgiving," Maykot told Refinery29. "Retailers have been trying to start the shopping season earlier and the high discounts for apparel on November 22 are one example of it." We're a little cynical about the prospect of this commercialized consumption blitz that is holiday shopping seemingly getting bumped up earlier each year. But hey, having some insight into when the shitstorm of gift-sourcing will be just slightly more bearable isn't a bad thing.
For its annual Digital Insights Shopping Predictions report, Adobe surveyed more than 1,000 people, looked at 4,500 retailers' sites, examining a trillion visits and 55 million SKUs (a.k.a. style numbers), as well as analyzing 75 million social media mentions. (You can check out last year's results, here.) In case you weren't quite convinced that e-comm is killing it these days, consider this: Online shopping is expected to increase 11% this year over last year, amounting to a projected record of $91 billion worth of gifts put into our digital carts. Apparently, Cyber Monday is slated to be the biggest online shopping day, not just of 2016, but in history. Landing on November 28, the online shopping bonanza that's basically tailored to a tryptophan hangover is expected to amass $3.36 billion this year, a 9.4% increase over last year's Cyber Monday revenues. Plus, there's a lot of post-Thanksgiving-weekend shopping taking place on-the-go, not just in cubicles: "Cyber Monday has historically been thought of as the day that consumers return to work and shop for great deals from their desktops, but this year we actually saw 26% year-over-year growth in terms people using mobile devices to shop for deals," Luiz Maykot, a data science analyst on the Adobe Digital Insights team, told Refinery29. If you'll be opting for fashion purchases, be it for your family, friends, or, let's be real, yourself, you'll want to shop on November 22, when apparel is slated to be around 20% off and there's still a solid chance you'll still find the sizes you want. Wait just a couple days, until Black Friday (a.k.a. November 25) and the selection on fashion goods is likely to be completely obliterated or picked-over at best. "November 22 is the sweet spot for apparel shopping, because it has high discounts and products are still in stock; out-of-stock incidence doubles beginning on Thanksgiving," Maykot told Refinery29. "Retailers have been trying to start the shopping season earlier and the high discounts for apparel on November 22 are one example of it." We're a little cynical about the prospect of this commercialized consumption blitz that is holiday shopping seemingly getting bumped up earlier each year. But hey, having some insight into when the shitstorm of gift-sourcing will be just slightly more bearable isn't a bad thing.