There may have been some well-publicised weak spots in the UK festive season but shoppers “flocked online to take advantage of deeper discounts, online sales events, flexible payment options and broader choice”, an Adobe report told us on Wednesday.

Its latest data showed that UK shoppers spent a record £25.8 billion online during the two-month festive season, up 5.9% year on year and £1.4 billion higher than the £24.4 billion spent during the same two months in 2023.

The extra spend came as “shoppers took advantage of seasonal deals and the deep discounts available during Cyber Weekend” from 29 November to 2 December.

The Adobe Digital Insights team used Adobe Analytics to analyse hundreds-of-millions of visits to retail sites from UK consumers during the wider period, tracking the prices of 100 million SKUs across 18 product categories.

The results show that there was some buoyancy in UK retail, despite reports of weak footfall to physical stores and retailers reporting a difficult in-store trading period.

In fact, Adobe said online shopping grew faster in November and December than at any point in 2024 “as consumers sought to find the best prices for their holiday purchases and take advantage of the deeper discounts, broader range of products and flexible payment options at their disposal”.

Of the aforementioned record-breaking £25.8 billion spend in the last two months of the year, £12.4 billion was spent in November and £13.4 billion in December. Some £14.5 billion was spent via mobile during the period, representing 7.4% growth from last year, and accounting for 56% of total online spend. A total of £3.6 billion was spent online in the UK during Cyber Weekend, up 5.2%. Black Friday (29 November) was the single biggest online spending day of the year, with consumers spending £1.12 billion.

In London, total online holiday spending hit £3.73 billion – up 6.5%. The highest spending days for Londoners were Black Friday (£271.8 million, +8.3%), and Cyber Monday (£167.8 million, +6.2%).

BNPL boost

The payment options referred to seem to have been crucial as consumers turned to Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services. A record £3.6 billion was spent via BNPL services, and accounted for a chunky 13.9% of all festive spend. That was up 9.1% compared with the same period last year. 

But while that was good news for the Christmas season, it could dent spending in the first couple of months of this year as consumers continue to fork out their deferred payments during January and February. 

Adobe said other BNPL records achieved during 2024 included the highest ever spend in a single month with December’s £1.88 billion, and the highest ever single day for BNPL usage being Cyber Monday (2 December), reaching £152.8 million.

Other interesting points to note included 56% of the year’s festive spending being via mobile, representing 7.4% growth from the previous year.

The report told us that online spending was “further boosted by the growing influence of affiliate partners (including social media influencers) and Generative AI as sources of gift inspiration for consumers and referral traffic for online retailers”. Affiliate partners drove an 18.9% revenue share (up 3.9%) while retail traffic from generative AI sources more than doubled when compared with October (up 107%) and up 2,600% against a year ago.

The record-breaking final two months of 2024 meant 2024 ended up as a strong one for online spending.

UK consumers spent a total of £115.3 billion in the year (up 3.7%). And it was also a record year for BNPL usage, with £17.6 billion spent via these services, representing 15.2% of total online spend for the 12 months.