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U.S. shoppers buying items online spent massive amounts of money on new electronic items, sprucing up their home, and back-to-school items this year.
On July 16-17, Adobe reported that U.S. consumers splashed out $14.2 billion by means of e-commerce, setting a new record for sales made online and via mobile devices in 2024.
That tally lines up with Amazon’s “Prime Day” sales event. The sales figure, which includes a large number of retailers, also takes into account the e-commerce giant. The $14.2 billion in sales represent the final two-day total, an 11% jump compared to sales figures last year.
Adobe’s latest report found that e-commerce sales were driven by back-to-school shopping and “product refresh cycles,” which it said was in reference to consumers buying new electronic items as well as home and furniture appliances.
As parents prep their kids for another academic year, back-to-school spending saw a huge boost, leaping 216% across both days when compared to daily levels in June. That could in part be due to Prime Day taking place later in the month. In 2023, Amazon held the event from July 11-12.
Parents spent a large chunk of change on backpacks, lunchboxes, and other school and office supplies, Adobe found.
Another key growth driver was led by consumers looking to upgrade or add new electronics and furnishings to their homes. Online sales for electronics jumped by 61% across both days when compared to sales during the prior month.
Per Adobe, consumers forked out big money on tablets, televisions, headphones and bluetooth speakers, fitness trackers, computers, smartphones, and cameras.
Meanwhile, sales for home, furniture, and appliances also rose sharply by 76% during the two-day event, as consumers shelled out on kitchen cookware, mattresses, including home office and bedroom furniture.
“It’s clear now that the Prime Day event has been a catalyst across these major categories, with discounts deep enough for consumers to hit the buy button and upgrade items in their homes,” said Vivek Pandya, lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights.
Adobe said it analyzed online transactions that cover over one trillion visits to U.S. retailers, 100 million stock keeping units (SKUs), and 18 product categories.
Adobe noted in its report that buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) options accounted for $1.08 billion of online sales during the two-days as shoppers leaned on the flexible payment method in a bid to better manage their budgets in the inflation economy. Even with pesky inflation, consumer spending remained strong this year, partly due to net-new demand.
Amazon’s coveted two-day event has cemented itself as a major industry-wide e-commerce moment — so much so that it prompted other retailers like Target and Walmart to launch their own discount extravaganzas. It even drove social media giant TikTok to try its hand at a similar event.
As one of the largest companies in the world by market cap, Amazon leads the way with its spin on the vintage Christmas-in-July sales ploy.