Wednesday , December 17, 2025

Online Holiday Sales Are off to a Strong Pre-Thanksgiving Start

Online shoppers have spent $79.7 billion in the first 23 days of the 2025 holiday shopping season, a 7.5% year-over-year increase, Adobe Analytics finds. Within that period, online shoppers spent more than $3 billion in a single day on 22 days, up two days from last year.

Discounts played a big role in driving online sales and are expected to become even more important as consumers in the United States head into the Thanksgiving holiday, Adobe says. For example, discounts on electronics, which peaked at 12% during the first 23 days, are expected to hit 29% on Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving.

Adobe’s data is based on more than a trillion visits to U.S.-based retailers, 100 million stock keeping units, and 18 product categories.  

Other product categories likely to see more generous discounts on Cyber Monday include apparel, which is expected to be discounted as much as 25%, compared to 12% during the first 23 days of the holiday shopping season, and computers, with 23% discounts on Cyber Monday, up from discounts of 12.9%.

Black Friday is expected to have the largest discounts of the holiday shopping season so far for televisions (23% vs. 11% so far), toys (27% vs. 16%), and appliances (18% vs. 13%).

A recent Adobe survey of 1,000 consumers reveals 49% of respondents believe they will get the best deals on Black Friday. That finding is supported by a recent Deloitte study.

Buy now, pay later loans for online purchases in the first 23 days of the holiday shopping season totaled $6.1 billion, up 10.3% from a year ago.

Using historical trends, Adobe projects BNPL loans to total $1.04 billion during Cyber Week, a 5% increase from the same period a year ago. Cyber Week runs from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday. 

Overall, Cyber Week is expected to generate $14.2 billion in spending, a 6.3% year-over-year increase, and will account for 17.2% of overall spending this holiday shopping season.

Mobile shopping also got off to a strong start during the first 23 days of the 2025 season, accounting for $41.3 billion in online sales, an 8% increase from last year. During that period, mobile shopping accounted for 51.9% of online spending, up from 51.6%. Adobe projects mobile shopping will generate $142.7 billion in sales for the entire holiday season, an 8.5% increase from 2024.

Traffic generated by artificial intelligence-based tools increased more than eightfold during the first 23 days of the holiday shopping season. Shoppers that landed on a U.S. retail site from an AI service were 30% more likely to buy something, Adobe says.

In addition, 32% of respondents to Adobe’s recent consumer survey say they have used AI to aid their online shopping, and 48% say they have used or plan to use AI specifically for holiday shopping. AI tools are primarily used to support “research, ideation, and inspiration,” Adobe says.

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