The 32 (Shopping) Days Of Christmas: Payment Method Data For Your eCommerce Business

eCommerce retailers, buckle up: It’s going to be a whopper of a year for online holiday buying, which means you’re about to have a very holly, jolly Christmas—if you’re prepared.

Our gift to you this year is the data that helps you do just that—get prepared to maximize your revenue from online purchases. (Even better than an official Red Ryder carbine-action, two-hundred-shot, range-model air rifle, you’re welcome!) Don’t underestimate the power of data: This year’s numbers, for example, show that mobile is where it’s at. Simply by making your mobile checkout easier, you can increase your total holiday season revenue by 7.3 percent!

Psst! Whether you're a seller or a last-minute shopper, the stars are aligned in your favor: This year there are the maximum number of days possible between Thanksgiving and Christmas, so make the most of it! Click To Tweet

In case data puts you to sleep, the gist of the stats below is this:

• Americans will be shopping in full force this holiday season. Consumer confidence just hit an 18-year high.
• mCommerce is on the upswing. Phone screens are getting bigger and desktop screens are getting smaller, so more people are buying on their smartphones rather than just shopping there.
• eWallets will be on your customers’ wish lists. Retailers are expected to deliver the kind of convenient, seamless customer experience mobile wallets provide.

Keep reading for specific data points about holiday eCommerce and online payment methods. And if you’d like some help preparing, we’re more than happy to take a break from untangling these holiday lights around the office—so let’s talk.

Holiday Shopping Data—Online Payment Methods, Plus

Customers are ready to shop…

Online shopping revenue for the 2018 holiday season in the U.S. is projected to increase by 14.8 percent over 2017, for a total of $124.1 billion. (Adobe)

Nearly one-third (31 percent) of consumers are expected to shop on Cyber Monday this year. (That’s four percent more shoppers on that day than last year.) (KPMG)

Online spending is expected to account for 57 percent of all purchases this holiday season. (Deloitte)

On average, consumers plan to spend an average of $1,250 on gifts, travel, and entertainment this season—five percent more than they spent last year. (CBS News)

The number of consumers who said they planned to buy experience gifts (travel, dining out, concerts, etc.) and service gifts (lawncare, home cleaning, spa treatments, etc.) increased five percentage points, to 49 percent. (Accenture)

A great mobile checkout experience will help you hit that “sweet spot”…

Mobile devices will dominate both traffic and orders for the entire holiday season, accounting for 68 percent of traffic and 46 percent of orders. (Salesforce)

On Christmas Eve (last minute shoppers!), mobile phones will account for 72 percent of visits and 54 percent of orders. (Salesforce)

Fifty percent of Gen-Z consumers (ages 17-22) who plan to complete all their shopping online favor shopping and paying via smartphone. (PwC)

High-earning millennials (ages 23-36 earning above $70,000 annually) are twice as likely to pay by smartphone as other consumers overall (50 percent vs. 24 percent). (PwC) As a group, millennials are likely to be the biggest spenders this holiday season (Accenture), and they plan to spend more money online this year over last year. (KPMG)

The number of Gen Xers (ages 38-53) who plan to use laptops or computers for online shopping is about even with those who will use mobile devices (53 percent and 55 percent, respectively). (Retail Dive)

Up your checkout game (and your methods of payment) if you want to capture more customers…

All consumers across all generations are looking to simplify their shopping; they want to shop in fewer stores and have a seamless shopping experience. (PwC)

In 2017, BlueSnap legacy customers saw a 125 percent increase in mobile wallet usage. (BlueSnap)

Thirty-nine percent of shoppers overall and 57 percent of millennials specifically will use “Buy Now” buttons via smartphones to purchase items this holiday season. (PwC)

Mobile payment awareness is higher than ever, with 53 percent of U.S. consumers aware that they can use their phones as a payment device, up from 43 percent. (Retail Dive)

Forty-four percent of consumers plan to use emerging payment methods—including Apple Pay, PayPal, Samsung Pay, and Google Wallet—to pay for holiday gifts. (National Retail Federation)

The holiday season is in full swing, but it’s not too late to add the payment methods your customers want! Get in touch to see how easy it is to create the optimal checkout experience with BlueSnap’s Global Payment Orchestration Platform.