Online Holiday Shopping Forecast

Global Online Shopping Behavior

The holidays are right around the corner... which means, so is holiday shopping. As online consumption continues to increase at a rapid pace, we took a closer look into online shopping behavior worldwide. Specifically, the holiday season is increasingly impacting turnover for the ecommerce industry. The following data is designed to help you to better prepare and mitigate your business strategies and challenges in conjunction with this year's holiday shopping craze.

Stylight has collected gobal insights to forecast this year's sales, style trends, purchase expectations, and peak shopping days. We hope this will help you align the right messages to the right audiences at the right time. You're welcome!

US leads the increased growth of the ecommerce industry

2015 holiday online shopping overview

According to Adobe's 2015 holiday online shopping predictions, the spend comprised from this year's holiday season in November and December will represent an estimated 20% of the global online spending. Not surprisingly, studies show that the US is the largest market for online sales revenue compared to the combined sales of the United Kingdom, France and Germany!

The growth of mobile

The shift from desktop to mobile continues to increase, especially in the US where, for the first time, mobile devices will drive the majority of shopping traffic at 51% (Adobe). Where style is concerned, Stylight saw an increase in global mobile traffic by 116% in 2015 compared to 2014. An incredibly high jump to say the least! We also saw a huge increase of 139% in Stylight app downloads-- proof that the holiday season is a perfect time for Millennial women to look for fashion inspiration anywhere, anytime through their smartphones. In terms of other countries to target via mobile: according to the annual Ebay TNS, one third of Italians will shop on mobile. In addition, the Adobe survey says 29% of Austrian internet users are expected to browse via mobile to look for the perfect gift. In Scandinavia, Norwegian shoppers are turning to their smartphones with 25% of online sales revenue coming from mobile devices during the holiday season (November-December).

These countries will buy the most on these specific days:

2015 Holiday Online Shopping Overview

According to Adobe's 2015 holiday online shopping predictions, online sales revenue from November to December will represent roughly 20% of all of 2015's worldwide online spend. Not surprisingly, studies show that the US is the largest market for online shopping as the total US online sales revenue is expected to be higher than that of the United Kingdom, France and Germany online sales revenue combined. 

December 7th and 8th are the peak shopping days in Europe & Scandinavia

31% of German shoppers start their holiday shopping before November; however, the most lucrative day will be December 7th, as they get warmed up for the first of advent. In Switzerland, the online basket per internet user is relatively high. Still looking to discount some fashion products? Stylight.ch users are looking for ball gowns the most.

In addition, December 7th is expected to be the best day to shop in France, but generally spend again during the country's better known sales period, which falls in January. The French also tend to put more importance into product reviews when it comes to holiday shopping, which will account for 36% of their purchases.

The 8th of December is declared a holiday in both Italy and Spain, which tends to be the peak day for shopping. Although, you can expect 1 out of 3 Italians to shop through their smartphones. As fashion eCommerce is showing a +19% growth in 2015, Italian women shop online for fashion products, the most popular of which is the cape, according to our data from Stylight.it.

The Late Shoppers: Netherlands and Belgium

Are the Dutch last-minute shoppers? Not at all! They actually have two gifting events in December, first Sinterklaas on the 5th and then the start of sales! According to the Adobe forcast survey, Belgium and the Netherlands won’t see huge discounts until their sales peak day on December 14th. Mark your calendars!

On this day, Belgians are expected to spend more than 2x the amount they usually spend in online shopping on a "normal" day, a total of $89 million.

However, when we look at shopping trends, the most search products differ heavily from one country to the other, as the Dutch search patterns focus on “midi dresses,” while Belgians are mostly searching for “coats” on Stylight.be.