Consumers Spend Record $6.4B Online on Thanksgiving

Consumers spent a record $6.4 billion online on Thanksgiving, up 5.3 percent year-over-year (YoY) as shoppers took advantage of Cyber Week deals that came in stronger than expected. The spend is above Adobe’s initial forecast of $6.37 billion for the day (up 4.9 percent YoY). Online sales peaked between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Mobile shopping hit an all-time high on Thanksgiving, with 61.6 percent of online sales coming through a mobile device (vs. desktop) — crossing the 60 percent mark for the first time (59.5 percent in 2024). This represented $3.9 billion in online spend via mobile, up 9.4 percent YoY. Artificial intelligence traffic to U.S. retail sites on Thanksgiving (measured by shoppers clicking on a link) increased by 725 percent compared to Thanksgiving  last year. Shoppers who landed on a U.S. retail site from an AI service were 54 percent more likely to convert, according to Adobe data. 

Total Retail's Take: As the holiday shopping season begins earlier and earlier each year, extending into October in some cases, one trend that has emerged is that consumers no longer wait for Black Friday to start their holiday weekend shopping. Thanksgiving Day has become a huge day for online shopping, and this year's data backs that up. Consumers are increasingly browsing and purchasing holiday gifts on their phones, oftentimes in the morning before they gather with family and friends for holiday dinners, and then later in the evening (8 p.m.-10 p.m.) when holiday festivities have wrapped up.

“The magnitude of discounts was the big story on Thanksgiving yesterday as retailers leaned into delivering great deals to drive consumer demand online,” said Vivek Pandya, lead analyst, Adobe Digital Insights, in a company press release. “This was further propped up by impulse-led mobile shopping and the use of generative AI, which assisted shoppers in locating the best deals, two trends that helped deliver higher-than-expected overall spend on Thanksgiving.”