The holiday shopping period in November and December is the busiest time of the year for retailers — not news to anyone who has seen shoppers lining up outside stores before most others have finished Thanksgiving dinner.
That sheer volume of transactions means that missing out on even a portion of shoppers’ pent-up demand during this part of the year can be disastrous. And if retailers don’t have their IT systems ready to go, they could quickly find themselves bemoaning a blue holiday.
This year, online shoppers are projected to spend nearly $144 billion in November and December, up from $126 billion last holiday season, according to Adobe Digital Insight’s report, “2019 Holiday Shopping Trends.”
Although online-only retailers account for a substantial portion of those sales, traditional retailers are also major e-commerce players. In fact, Best Buy led all retailers last year in terms of their boost to online traffic and conversion rates on Cyber Monday and Black Friday, with a twofold increase in conversion and a fivefold traffic spike.
Despite robust numbers all around, however, not every retailer had a happy holiday in 2018. Business Insider reported that a number of major retailers saw their websites crash during the season, causing them to lose untold sales revenue.