Majority of US Shoppers Will Turn to Digital for Holiday Shopping Needs This Year

Many consumers’ shopping behaviors have moved online in recent months, and that trend is likely to continue through the holiday shopping season.

According to May 2020 data from daVinci Payments, 71% of US adults said they planned to do more than half of their holiday shopping digitally this year.

Younger consumers—particularly millennials ages 26 to 38—were more likely to shop this way, though older cohorts weren’t too far behind. Six in 10 respondents ages 56 and older planned to do more than half of their holiday shopping online in 2020, a sign that many have become more comfortable with ecommerce amid the pandemic.

Salesforce data from the same month shows a similar shift in holiday shopping plans this year. Nearly half of US adults said they were more interested in shopping online for the holidays compared with last year. Just 10% said they were less interested.

Other channels like mcommerce and social commerce have also captured consumer attention. For example, 37% of US adults in the Salesforce survey said they were more interested in mobile app shopping than they were last year, and 22% said the same about shopping via social media.

Additionally, usage in click and collect has surged—specifically curbside pickup—which has allowed shoppers to make immediate purchases while minimizing human contact. This buying method is also likely to increase during the 2020 holiday season. We had previously forecast that US click-and-collect ecommerce sales would increase by 38.6% this year. Now, we expect growth to be 60.4%, with sales reaching $58.52 billion.

As for the overall market, we expect there will be a 10.5% decline in total US retail sales this year, with a 14.0% drop in brick-and-mortar sales due to social distancing measures. Ecommerce, however, is poised to grow 18.0%, following a 14.9% gain in 2019.