Holiday season 2015 did not reach the expectations of many retailers. Holiday season 2016 is expected to see even stronger growth for online retailing, but not a lot of growth for store-based retailing — especially apparel, home goods, and mass merchandise store-based retailers.
eMarketer reports that:
“U.S. retail E-commerce holiday season sales will grow rapidly this year, according to a forecast from Kantar Retail. Online sales will trend upward by nearly 16%, while overall retail climbs by less than 4%. Kantar forecasts slightly higher growth for topline [overall] holiday retail sales this year compared to last year. Online sales will also grow more quickly than in Q4 2015. eMarketer similarly expects digital holiday shopping to grow rapidly this year, as total retail sales climb at a slower pace.”
eMarketer also notes that:
“Each holiday season, a larger share of that growing digital pie goes toward mobile. A January 2016 report from Adobe illustrated the change from 2014 to 2015. Two years ago, 56% of all digital traffic to retail sites during November and December came from desktop PCs. In 2015, PCs’ share had fallen to 50%, with mobile phones growing their share by 9 points. All signs point to further increases in mobile traffic this year, suggesting desktop traffic will no longer account for majority of all holiday digital retail traffic. Conversion rates are rising on smartphones as well, meaning mobile will also account for a larger than ever share of holiday sales.”
Retailing: From A to Z 