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Holiday ecommerce season will take a dip this year, reveals forecast

August 28, 2017

Retailers hoping for a more robust ecommerce holiday season will likely have their hopes dashed, given ecommerce growth will hit just 10 percent growth, a 1 percent dip compared to last year.

Amazon's increasing dominance and greater online discounts are prime reasons for the forecast from NetElixir's 2017 Holiday Forecasts report. Also in play, according to a release, are macro economic factors such as more retail store closings and increasing reliance on mobile shopping, which NetElixir projects will account for 35 percent of holiday purchases.

"With Amazon continuing to play a huge role in ecommerce consolidation, retailers need to prioritize ecommerce in order to stay competitive during the holiday shopping season," said Udayan Bose, founder and CEO of NetElixir, in the release.

"There are also some expected consumer behaviors that retailers can leverage, like the higher percentage of consumers who will make last-minute purchases before Christmas. We also found that post-Christmas purchases, otherwise known as 'me buys,' are going to experience a substantial increase this year, giving retailers an opportunity to reap some of their losses from the holiday period."