By Sabrina Escobar
Americans set another online spending record during the holiday season as consumers embraced new shopping technologies like artificial intelligence and buy now, pay later.
Online shopping rose 6.8% year over year to $257.8 billion from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31, a new high for e-commerce, according to new data from Adobe Analytics. Over half of online spend was driven by three categories -- electronics, apparel, and furniture.
2025 was the year consumers flocked to new technologies to help with their shopping. Use of generative AI-powered chat services and browsers to find deals and conduct product research surged, with traffic to retail sites stemming from generative AI tools rising 693% compared with last year.
"While the base of users remains modest, the uptick shows the value AI can deliver as a shopping assistant," Adobe said. AI assistants were used most to shop for videogames, toys, appliances, electronics, and personal care products.
Use of Buy Now, Pay Later tools hit a high throughout the holiday season, contributing $20 billion in online spend, up 9.8% year over year. About 80% of BNPL purchases came from smartphones. Mobile shopping hit a milestone as well, with most online transactions -- 56.4% -- taking place on a smartphone this season.
Since the pandemic, e-commerce has become a major driver of total holiday sales. Most large retailers have spent the past decade building up their delivery infrastructure to cater to rising demand from consumers. Now, the industry's leaders are shifting attention toward the next big thing in retail -- so-called agentic commerce, or the use of AI tools or agents to find and purchase merchandise.
AI tools enhance the online shopping experience by delivering more "relevant, context-aware answers with fewer steps," wrote a group of analysts at BofA Securities. That is driving a change in user activity, shifting search away from traditional browsers and toward AI chatbots.
Companies like Shopify, Etsy, Target, and Walmart joined with ChatGPT parent company OpenAI ahead of the holiday season to allow users to shop for products directly via ChatGPT. Some of these retailers operate their own AI chatbots, as well.
AI will likely continue to be the dominant theme again this year for e-commerce operators, analysts say, as e-commerce operators look to establish dominance in a rapidly shifting field.
"There is a battle emerging between Amazon, OpenAI, Google, and other AI companies to be the starting place for agentic shopping," the BofA analysts added.
Write to Sabrina Escobar at sabrina.escobar@barrons.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 07, 2026 11:01 ET (16:01 GMT)
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