Despite economic concerns impacting U.S. shoppers over the holiday season online spending hit a record high, according to data released Wednesday by Adobe Analytics.
“Consumers spent $257.8 billion online from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31, up 6.8% year-over-year… and setting a new record for e-commerce,” said Adobe’s report. “There were 25 days that saw $4 billion or more in spend in the 2025 holiday season, up from the 18 days in 2024.”
Mobile shopping also “hit a new milestone,” bringing in more than 145 billion, according to the report. In 2024, mobile purchases already accounted for more than half of online transactions and this year, they increased from 54.5% to 56.4%. Christmas Day had an especially high amount of mobile commerce traffic, driving an estimated 66.5% of online sales, up from 65% in 2024.
Thanksgiving was another busy day for mobile shopping. The “Cyber Week” period following the holiday – including Black Friday and Cyber Monday – was also strong, bringing in $44.2 billion in overall online sales. Adobe said. That was up 7.7% year-over-year. Cyber Monday remained the busiest single e-commerce day of the year, driving $14.5 billion in online sales, up 7.1% year-over-year.
Use of buy-now-pay-later plans also hit a record high over the 2025 holiday season, per Adobe’s data. It said the method contributed $20 billion in online spend, up 9.8% year-over-year. Again, mobile shopping dominated here – smartphones accounted for 82.2% of buy-now-pay-later payments. Cyber Monday was also the busiest day for these purchases, “crossing the $1 billion milestone,” Adobe said.
“In an Adobe survey of over 1,000 U.S. consumers (conducted Nov. 2025), respondents said they were most likely to use [buy-now-pay-later] for electronics, apparel, toys, and furniture purchases,” it added.
A new trend over the recent holidays was the use of generative artificial intelligence. Shoppers used generative AI-powered chat services and browsers to help research products and deals, Adobe noted. Use of these tools skyrocketed by 693.4% compared to 2024, it added. On Cyber Monday in particular, AI traffic to U.S. retail sites increased by 670%.
“This 2025 holiday season, consumers embraced generative AI more than ever as a shopping assistant in their purchasing decisions,” said Vivek Pandya, lead analyst, Adobe Digital Insights. “Competitive discounts and flexible payment options like Buy Now Pay Later also contributed to driving record spend of $257.8 billion throughout this holiday season.”
Adobe Analytics report covered over 1 trillion visits to U.S. retail sites. In addition to the new spending highs it recorded, the data revealed that strong discounts drove consumer activity online and the purchase of higher ticket items and that people returned less amid new policies at many stores.