Last year, Americans spent about $730 billion on holiday purchases during November and December, which was a 4% increase over 2018 sales, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF). Online and other remote sales amounted to over $167 billion, or about 23% of the total retail sales. During the rest of the year online sales typically account for about 10-11% of retail sales, according to the U.S. Census, but recently have been tracking at 16% in the second quarter of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
And it's not just payment habits that are changing, but the very nature of what people are willing to buy one another. Coinstar’s Annual Holiday Survey found that the among the most popular gifts to fill this year’s Christmas holiday stockings will be hand sanitizer (40%), face masks (38%), and disinfectant wipes (23%).