Election Anxiety Has Cost Online Retailers $800 Million

Shopper anxiety related to last week’s U.S. election is taking a toll on retailers, according to two data providers. Consumers who were riveted and stressed out by the close presidential context last week held back on spending, costing online retailers $800 million between Nov. 1 and Nov. 14, according to data released on Thursday by Adobe Digital Insights. And the declined worsened after the election itself, when Republican candidate Donald Trump stunned the world with a win over Democrat Hillary Clinton. The hit was so hard that total e-commerce growth was 1.3% during the period, well below the 7.8% Adobe had forecast. Adobe aggregates data from 18.1 billion visits to retail web sites. Not even deals could sway shoppers after the polarizing results. Discounting nearly doubled on Election Day, Nov. 8, compared with the same day in 2015, and rose 40% in the last week of October from a year earlier, according to EDITED, a data service that tracks major fashion and footwear brands. Yet product sellouts were down by 60% during the same timeframe. Read more at Fortune.