Shopping online for presents slowed last year

Online shopping for holiday gifts last year in the U.S. grew at the slowest rate since at least 2014, according to Adobe Analytics, after a blowout year in 2020.

Consumers spent a record $204.5 billion on e-commerce from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31, an 8.6 percent increase from the prior-year period, Adobe said. Growth slowed from prior years amid decreased popularity of major shopping days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, fewer discounts on key gift categories, and the emergence of the omicron variant that sickened workers and upended some holiday gatherings.

Supply-chain snarls and cargo delays also hurt some retailers’ inventories. Adobe tracked 6 billion out-of-stock messages online during the shopping season, a 10 percent increase from the prior year and up threefold from 2019.

“When we see these shortages happen which start to ripple online, availability becomes less across the board and choices become less,” Vivek Pandya, senior digital insights manager at Adobe, said in an interview. “If you have less choice, then the price will tick up.”

Online holiday spending grew at least 13 percent in each of the six shopping seasons prior to the last one, including a 32 percent year-over-year jump in 2020, according to Adobe.

“The growth that we were able to build on to last season really helped kind of showcase that there’s definitely entrenched behaviors in terms of online spend,” Pandya said.

Last year’s deals were less compelling than in prior years. For example, electronics were discounted 8 percent compared with 21 percent in 2020. Computer prices were down 10 percent compared with 22 percent the year before. One exception was for apparel and toys, where discounts were better than they were in 2020.

Adobe on Wednesday also released data that showed online prices increased 3.1 percent in December, the 19th consecutive month of year-over-year increases. That’s still lower than the overall level of inflation.

“As consumers contend with higher offline prices for everything from gas to rent, they are finding that e-commerce is still a less expensive option when it comes to goods like toys, electronics, and even jewelry,” Patrick Brown, Adobe’s vice president of growth marketing and insights, said in a statement.