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(NEW YORK) — Online holiday shopping soared to a fresh record high in 2024, driven by an array of e-commerce discounts and adoption of AI-fueled shopping assistants, according to data released on Tuesday by Adobe.

E-commerce sales topped $240 billion in November and December, climbing nearly 9% when compared with the gift-buying season a year prior, data showed.

The data indicated that three product categories accounted for more than half of the online holiday spending: electronics, apparel and home goods.

Spending on cosmetics totaled nearly $8 billion, jumping more than 12% compared to a year prior. That marked the largest year-over-year spending increase for any product category, the data showed.

Discounts helped drive strong sales for some high-priced items, Adobe said, pointing to a 20% jump in units sold for expensive goods.

The fresh data indicated a spike in use of shopping assistants powered by generative AI, suggesting the technology has seeped into the retail sector’s busiest time of the year.

Traffic to retail sites from generative AI-powered chatbots skyrocketed 1,300% over November and December when compared to the same period a year prior, the data showed.

The share of consumers arriving via AI shopping assistants remains modest, however, Adobe said. Shoppers arrived at retail sites via links shared by the chatbots.

“The 2024 holiday season showed that e-commerce is being reshaped by a consumer who now prefers to transact on smaller screens and lean on generative AI-powered services to shop more efficiently,” Vivek Pandya, a lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights, said in a statement.

The e-commerce data comes weeks after initial indicators pointed to a robust holiday shopping season.

Overall holiday spending surged in 2024, blowing past expectations and outpacing customer purchases over the gift-buying season last year, according to data released by Mastercard SpendingPulse last month.

The end-of-year flex of consumer strength marks the latest indication of resilient U.S. buying power, which has kept the economy humming despite a prolonged stretch of high interest rates.

Gross domestic product grew at a solid 2.8% annualized rate over three months ending in September, the most recent quarter for which data is available.

The labor market has slowed but proven sturdy. The unemployment rate stands at 4.2%, a historically low figure.

Consumer spending accounts for nearly three-quarters of U.S. economic activity.

The increase in holiday spending coincided with an initial bout of relief for borrowers, as the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a total of one percentage point over the final few months of the year.

However, interest rates still stand at a historically high level of between 4.25% and 4.5%.

Lower interest rates typically stimulate economic activity by making it easier for consumers and businesses to borrow, which in turn fuels investment and spending. But interest rate cuts usually influence the economy after a lag of several months, meaning the recent lowering of rates likely had little impact on holiday spending.

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(NEW YORK) — Thousands of Starbucks baristas are set to walk off the job on Tuesday, expanding the dayslong holiday strike to 300 stores in dozens of cities and towns nationwide, according to the union Starbucks Workers United.

In all, 5,000 Starbucks employees will go on strike in more than 25 states on Tuesday, spanning from Maryland to Montana to California, Workers United said.

Workers in Columbus, Ohio, Cheyenne, Wyoming, Buffalo, New York, and a host of other locations are set to join the strikes, the union said.

The work stoppages on Christmas Eve mark the final wave of a five-day strike meant to disrupt Starbucks during one of the busiest times of the year for the coffeehouse giant.

“These strikes are an initial show of strength, and we’re just getting started,” Lauren Hollingsworth, a Starbucks barista in Ashland, Oregon, told ABC News in a statement.

Starbucks Workers United and Starbucks announced earlier this year that they would work on a “foundational framework” to reach a collective bargaining agreement for stores, something the union says has not come to fruition.

“We were ready to bring the foundational framework home this year, but Starbucks wasn’t,” Lynne Fox, President of Workers United, told ABC News in a statement.

The strike began on Friday and has escalated each day since. On Monday, about 60 stores were forced to close as result of work stoppages, the union said.

In response to ABC News’ request for comment, Starbucks Spokesperson Jay Go Guasch said the strikes had impacted a fraction of its U.S. stores.

“Only around 170 Starbucks stores did not open as planned. With over 10,000 company operated stores, 98% of our stores and over 200,000 green apron partners continuing to operate and serve customers during the holidays,” Go-Guasch said.

Sara Kelly, Starbucks’ executive vice president and chief partner officer, downplayed the impact of the strikes in a public letter to employees late Monday.

“The overwhelming majority of Starbucks stores across the country have opened as planned and are busy with customers enjoying the holidays,” Kelly said, noting that the company operates 10,000 stores and employs 200,000 people nationwide.

Anticipating the expansion of the strike on Tuesday, Kelly said work stoppages in hundreds of stores would cause “very limited impact to our overall operations.”

“The union chose to walk away from bargaining last week,” Kelly said. “We are ready to continue negotiations when the union comes back to the bargaining table.”

The union and the company remain far apart on the key issue of potential wage increases, according to statements from both sides about the other’s proposal.

Workers United told ABC News in a statement that Starbucks had proposed no immediate wage increases for most baristas and a guarantee of only 1.5% wage increases in future years.

Meanwhile, Starbucks said in a statement that the union had proposed an immediate increase in the minimum wage of hourly partners by 64%, as well as an overall 77% raise over the duration of a three-year contract. “This is not sustainable,” a Starbucks spokesperson told ABC News.

Starbucks United contests those figures as a disingenuous characterization of its proposal, the union told ABC News.

Baristas have unionized more than 100 Starbucks stores this year, expanding a union campaign that has spread to hundreds of stores across 45 states since an initial victory three years ago at a location in Buffalo, New York, the union said.

The union has filed hundreds of charges with the National Labor Relations Board alleging illegal anti-union activities carried out by Starbucks, including alleged bad-faith negotiations over a potential union contract setting terms at the unionized locations.

Starbucks has denied wrongdoing and faulted the union for breaking off negotiations. The company offers better pay and benefits than its competitors, Starbucks said.

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(NEW YORK) — Quiksilver, Billabong, and Volcom, known for their surf and skate products, are closing stores in the United States.

The parent company of the brick-and-mortar stores, Liberated Brands, filed voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Sunday, which will result in over 100 retail locations across the country being shuttered, according to a filing.

The company attributes its financial difficulties to several factors, including inflation demands as well as a significant change in consumer spending habits.

ABC News has reached out to Liberated Brands for comment but has not yet received a response.

“The Liberated team has worked tirelessly over the last year to propel these iconic brands forward, but a volatile global economy, consumer spending changes amid a rising cost of living, and inflationary pressures have all taken a heavy toll,” Liberated Brands said in a statement, according to Financier Worldwide.

The statement continued, “Despite this difficult change, we are encouraged that many of our talented associates have found new opportunities with other license holders that will carry these great brands into the future.”

The brands themselves are expected to continue under new management, the company said in a statement.

The announcement of these store closings follows other huge department stores such as Macy’s, Kohl’s and more that are also closing their doors at locations throughout the U.S.

In January, Macy’s announced the closure of 66 Macy’s non-go-forward store locations. Macy’s said it intended to close almost 150 underproductive stores in total over a three-year period.

These closures are a part of the Bold New Chapter strategy, which was announced in February 2024, with the goal of returning “the company to sustainable, profitable sales growth,” the company said.

Kohl’s also announced last month that it would be shuttering 27 underperforming stores and all would occur by April.

“As we continue to build on our long-term growth strategy, it is important that we also take difficult but necessary actions to support the health and future of our business for our customers and our teams,” said Tom Kingsbury, Kohl’s chief executive officer, in a statement.

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