Did This Season’s Inflation Issue End the Online Shopping Boom?

February 12, 2024

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Thomas Borders, VP & GM of Product Lifecycle Solutions

Inflation was the topic on everyone’s lips in the lead-up to holiday shopping — not exactly the most festive way to open the season. This atmosphere resulted in fairly lackluster predictions for sales, and although it’s been on a steady upward swing since the pandemic, e-commerce was very much included in that forecast. 

But did those grim holiday shopping predictions come true? 

According to our post-holiday shopper survey, the answer — surprisingly — is “no”. In fact, this season was anything but bleak for e-commerce and omnichannel merchants.

  • Price remained paramount for online shoppers, but a convenient post-purchase experience was a key differentiator 
  • 21 percent of the respondents did ALL of their holiday shopping online 
  • 58 percent of online buyers said they spent more this year than last

At the end of the season, the growth of in-store sales reached 2.2 percent and online sales increased 6.3 percent. So what kept shoppers engaged in e-commerce, despite the strain on their wallets?

Get your free copy of our 2023 post-holiday e-commerce survey to hear directly from shoppers and get the insights you need to win their loyalty.