Adobe reports that consumers spent nearly $80 billion online in the first 23 days of November, up 7.5% over last year, signaling an early, and strong start to the holiday season.
getty
Online sales rose 7.5%, year over year, during the first 23 days of November, a sign that the holiday season is off to a strong start.
Adobe, which tracks online spending, drawing data from over 1 trillion visits to U.S. retail sites, reported today that consumers spent $79.7 billion from November 1 to November 23, the first 23 days of the 2025 holiday season.
The November results are tracking ahead of Adobe’s forecast for the two-month holiday season. It reported previously, in its 2025 holiday forecast, that it expects online sales to increase by 5.3% for the November through December period, and to top $250 billion.
On 22 days so far this season, consumers spent over $3 billion dollars within a single day, compared to 20 such days during the comparable period last year.
Early shopping driven by early deals
Consumers have been telling retail researchers that they planned to shop earlier this year, driven by concerns about prices and possible shortages, and the Adobe figures confirm that this is happening.
Adobe reported that the strong spend has been driven in part by early deals. But it expects that the biggest discounts will be offered starting on Thanksgiving and continuing through Cyber Monday.
Thanksgiving is expected to be the day with the biggest discounts for sporting goods, at 19%. Black Friday is expected to have the biggest discounts for televisions (23%); toys (27%) and appliances (18%). Cyber Monday is expected to have the biggest discounts for apparel (25%) and computers (23%).
Pay later payments up 10%
The use of buy-now-pay-later flexible payment plans also surged in November, driving $6.1 billion in online spending, up 10.3% – or almost $600 million – year-over-year, Adobe reported.
Adobe’s data also shows that generative AI-powered chat services and browsers are playing an important role in holiday purchasing.
It found that AI-driven traffic to U.S retail sites rose 830% year-over-year during the first 23 days of November, and that shoppers who landed on a U.S. Retail site from an AI service were 30% more likely to make a purchase.
PwC Survey Shows Stronger Than Expected Spending
Research released Tuesday by accounting and consulting firm PwC also contained positive signals for holiday spending. PwC’s Holiday Sentiment survey, conducted in October, found that the average consumer expects to spend $770 on gifts, up 7% from expected spending of consumers surveyed in June.
“New data suggests that while shoppers still feel wary, they’re spending more than they planned to just a few months ago,” PwC reported. “When it comes to the holidays, people are willing to stretch their budgets, even if it means cutting back in January,” according to the PwC report.
The PwC survey found that 41% of consumers plan to do most of their shopping between Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/joanverdon/2025/11/26/november-online-sales-up-75-showing-strong-start-to-holiday-season/
