The 2020 US holiday season posted better-than-expected retail sales growth, as huge ecommerce gains added to a surprisingly positive performance for brick-and-mortar retail. The early outlook for the 2021 holiday season is solid despite major economic uncertainty ahead.

Many consumers’ shopping behaviors have moved online in recent months, and that trend is likely to continue through the holiday shopping season.

In this Meet the Analyst Webinar, eMarketer principal analyst Andrew Lipsman will update us on the latest consumer spending patterns across brick-and-mortar and ecommerce channels, how product categories and leading retailers are performing, and what it all means for the 2020 holiday season.

More US consumers shopped from their couch than in-person every day of Thanksgiving weekend 2021.

Omicron didn’t stop holiday shoppers: Despite a surge in cases tied to the latest COVID-19 variant, US shop and restaurant visits increased as much as 4.8% in the week leading up to Christmas, per SafeGraph data. Both in-store and online sales picked up with overall sales rising 8.5% from 2020, according to Mastercard SpendingPulse.