Holiday Shopping by the Numbers: 26 Stats from 2018

Sure, it’s June, but it’s also time to be thinking about your strategy for the 2019 holiday shopping season. To get started, how about taking a look at last year’s U.S. holiday shopping results? Here are 26 compelling stats to learn from, and perhaps be inspired by:1. Holiday spending in the United States [totaled $707.5 billion last year](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-retail-sales/u-s-2018-holiday-sales-numbers-surprise-nrf-fall-short-of-expectations-idUSKCN1Q32MB), an increase of 2.9 percent over the same period in 2017.2. An estimated [165.8 million Americans](https://websitesetup.org/holiday-ecommerce-marketing-statistics/) shopped in the critical period between Thanksgiving Day and Cyber Monday. 3. Black Friday was the [most popular shopping day](https://nrf.com/media-center/press-releases/nrf-survey-says-more-164-million-consumers-plan-shop-over-five-day) of the 2018 Thanksgiving weekend, with 116 million Americans saying they planned to shop that day. 4. The [most popular day to shop online](https://nrf.com/media-center/press-releases/thanksgiving-weekend-multichannel-shopping-almost-40-percent-over-last) in 2018 was Cyber Monday, cited by 67.4 million shoppers, followed by Black Friday with 65.2 million shoppers. 5. Cyber Monday 2018 was the [heaviest online spending day in U.S. history](https://www.emarketer.com/content/us-2018-holiday-season-review-and-2019-preview), with a reported outlay of $7.87 billion. 6. [14.8 million online transactions](https://www.hitwise.com/en/2018/11/27/online-transactions-grew-15-during-peak-week-2018-with-off-peak-days-posting-strongest-growth/) were processed on Black Friday last year and 13.7 million online transactions were processed on Thanksgiving Day.7. The [most popular day for in-store shopping](https://nrf.com/media-center/press-releases/thanksgiving-weekend-multichannel-shopping-almost-40-percent-over-last) was Black Friday, when more than 67 million shoppers ventured out, followed by Small Business Saturday with 47.4 million in-store shoppers.8. [76 million Americans](https://nrf.com/media-center/press-releases/nrf-survey-says-more-164-million-consumers-plan-shop-over-five-day) planned to shop on Cyber Monday last year, either in stores or online. 9. Last year, [consumers spent $6.2 billion](https://news.adobe.com/press-release/experience-cloud/adobe-analytics-data-shows-cyber-monday-broke-online-sales-record-79) on Black Friday and $3.7 billion on Thanksgiving Day. That represented a 19.7% increase over 2017. 10. [Online holiday spending in the U.S. increased by 16.5 percent](https://learn.g2.com/online-shopping-statistics) between 2017 and 2018. 11. Average per-person spending [was $313.29](https://nrf.com/media-center/press-releases/thanksgiving-weekend-multichannel-shopping-almost-40-percent-over-last) during last year’s Thanksgiving weekend. 12. The biggest spenders over the 2018 holiday weekend in the U.S. were older millennials and Gen Xers, who spent [an average of $413.05](https://nrf.com/media-center/press-releases/thanksgiving-weekend-multichannel-shopping-almost-40-percent-over-last).13. The number of consumers who [shopped both online and in stores](https://nrf.com/media-center/press-releases/thanksgiving-weekend-multichannel-shopping-almost-40-percent-over-last) was up nearly 40 percent over the same period in 2017.14. Multichannel shoppers (online and in stores) [outspent single-channel](https://marketingland.com/165-million-people-shopped-online-and-in-stores-over-black-friday-weekend-252602) shoppers by up to $93 on average.15. Email accounted for [24 percent](https://websitesetup.org/holiday-ecommerce-marketing-statistics/) of sales during the 2018 Thanksgiving holiday period.16. [66 percent of smartphone](https://nrf.com/media-center/press-releases/thanksgiving-weekend-multichannel-shopping-almost-40-percent-over-last) owners used their mobile devices to make holiday purchasing decisions in 2018, up from 63 percent in 2017. 17. Smartphone use accounted for the [majority of digital shopping traffic](https://www.emarketer.com/content/thanksgiving-day-is-now-the-no-3-online-shopping-holiday) for the first time in the 2018 holiday season with 51% of visits, while contributing 31% of e-commerce sales. 18. [38% of Thanksgiving Day](http://www.emarketer.com/content/thanksgiving-day-is-now-the-no-3-online-shopping-holiday) sales were made via smartphone – well ahead of both Black Friday (33%) and Cyber Monday (28%). 19. Mobile devices drove an estimated 72 percent of all traffic and 54 percent of all orders [on Christmas Eve](https://websitesetup.org/holiday-ecommerce-marketing-statistics/). 20. [Top purchases](https://nrf.com/media-center/press-releases/thanksgiving-weekend-multichannel-shopping-almost-40-percent-over-last) over the 2018 Thanksgiving weekend included apparel (57 percent of those surveyed), toys (34 percent), books and video games (29 percent), electronics (26 percent) and gift cards (20 percent). 21. [Four out of ten consumers](https://nrf.com/insights/holiday-and-seasonal-trends/winter-holidays) reported that they started their holiday shopping before November 1. 22. [Six of ten respondents](https://nrf.com/insights/holiday-and-seasonal-trends/winter-holidays) told the National Retail Federation last year that they like to receive gift cards as holiday gifts. 23. Credit cards were the [most popular form of payment](https://nrf.com/insights/holiday-and-seasonal-trends/winter-holidays), used by 46% of shoppers, followed by debit cards (36%), cash (16%), and check (2%). 24. No surprise: Younger shoppers [proved more likely than older ones](https://nrf.com/insights/holiday-and-seasonal-trends/winter-holidays) to use social platforms to track sales and promotion during their 2018 holiday shopping. 25. About [40 percent of U.S. holiday sales](https://websitesetup.org/holiday-ecommerce-marketing-statistics/) were on Amazon. 26. 69 percent of consumers are [more likely to finance online purchases](https://learn.g2.com/online-shopping-statistics) during the holiday season.