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Surprising Retail Statistics in the 2020 Holiday Season

January 29, 2021

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Approximately 75% of consumers are shopping online at least once a month. The COVID-19 pandemic has furthermore increased the popularity of digital shopping as people were forced to adapt to a new reality. 

We saw a tremendous surge in digital for the first three quarters of this year,” said Rob Garf, vice president of strategy and insights in Salesforce’s Retail & Consumer Goods practice.

As the holiday season was heavily virtual-based and the changing customer behaviors kept impacting the retail industry, there were some trends and statistics that surprised many industry experts.  

Black Friday

Online sales on Black Friday hit a new record—$9 billion. Although shopping in physical stores on Black Friday dropped by 52.1%, online sales were up 21.6% compared to the previous year. 

Another interesting statistic involves shopping app downloads, which reached 2.8 million on Black Friday, according to preliminary estimates from Sensor Tower Store Intelligence.

Although it was predicted that sales will drop on Black Friday 2020 due to the financial crisis caused by the pandemic, in the U.S. sales were up 177% against their October average. Consumer electronics were on top of the list with 359%, followed by finance and home goods, with 240 and 148%.

E-commerce 

In October 2020, e-commerce was up 31.2% and online holiday sales reached $190.5 billion. Managing this high amount of online orders was difficult and retailers had to adjust in order to keep up with the trends. Services like curbside pickups and buy online, pick up in-store are no longer optional, but necessary for brands that want to meet their customers’ demands. 

At the end of the holiday season, a new challenge arises: returns. According to Salesforce, $280 billion worth of returns were expected this holiday season. At this point, stores that offer in-store returns of online orders seem to be on the winning side as compared to those who are forced to manage extra shipping fees. 

Apparel

Apparel sales suffered a drastic decline month after month throughout the year, reaching a 12.1% decline in October. 

This is a slightly disappointing outcome given that October is the period when consumers start to buy heavier items of apparel in preparation for the cooler months ahead,” GlobalData Retail Managing Director Neil Saunders said in emailed comments. “In our view, it suggests that the clothing sector is still a very long way off any meaningful recovery.”

“Consumers are still spending and there is still an influx of money from other sectors of the economy which is helping retailers,” Saunders said.

Conclusion

The extended holiday season (Oct. 11- Dec. 24, 2020) came with a 3% growth in the retail sales industry according to Mastercard, and 19.7% of these sales come from e-commerce, compared to 13.4% in 2019. 

Some of these statistics come as a surprise for many since 2020 was a very difficult year, both financially and socially. What experts predict for the following period is an even more massive growth in e-commerce. Retailers will still have to deal with the inconsistent, continually changing customer behavior, and rethink their strategies for omnichannel, affordable retail experiences.