Growth of retail e-commerce holiday season sales in the U.S. 2017-2024
In the United States, holiday season online retail sales grew by 8.8 percent in 2023 compared to the previous year. Forecasts suggested that this growth would increase in 2024 to 9.5 percent.
The new normal in holiday shopping
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted many U.S. consumers to do their holiday shopping online. A year later, although the situation once again allows for physical shopping, e-commerce is still gaining relevance. According to estimates, holiday season online retail sales in the United States were to reach new heights in 2023, amounting to 254 billion dollars. As in previous years, Cyber Monday and Black Friday would remain the most relevant holiday shopping days in 2023, expected to generate approximately 12 billion and 9.6 billion U.S. dollars in sales, respectively.
A preference for online
With Cyber Monday expected to generate 2.4 billion dollars more than Black Friday in 2023, it comes as no surprise that most holiday shoppers reported that their preferred type of retailer for holiday gifts were online-only retailers. Over six in ten consumers prefered to buy holiday gifts from e-commerce only merchants, while department stores only only preferred by about 24 percent of seasonal shoppers.
