Lured by early holiday discounts, shoppers spent $76.8 billion online in October

The holidays are almost here, but consumers have been in a holiday mood for at least the last month.

According to Adobe Analytics’ latest pre-holiday spending insights, consumers spent a record $76.8 billion shopping online between October 1 and October 31. That’s a 5.9% YoY increase over last October, when consumers spent $72.5 billion.

And while inflation and rising prices continue to deter many shoppers, factors like early holiday discounting, and flexible payment methods like buy now, pay later (BNPL) greatly contributed to the increase in sales.

Of course, some categories offered better deals than others. The usual suspects, like electronics and apparel, led the pack, offering discounts from 9%–12%, respectively. Sporting goods (7%), appliances (6%), and toys and home furniture (both 5%) rounded out the list.

For shoppers who wanted to splurge, BNPL was apparently an attractive option, accounting for $6.4 billion in online spending, a 6% YoY increase.

“We continue to experience a challenging economic picture, where increasing costs for consumers has been seen across rising interest rates, inflation in food prices, resuming student loan repayments, and more,” Vivek Pandya, Adobe Digital Insights lead analyst, said in a statement. “Despite the uncertainty in the macro-environment, Adobe Analytics data has shown that the consumer remains resilient heading into the big holiday season, and are embracing every opportunity to manage their budgets in more efficient ways.”