Online Sales Up, Retail Hiring Is Down

The holiday shopping season apparently begins on Veteran’s Day. Why not? Every other American holiday is about shopping. Online sales topped $1.3 billion on Nov. 11, a 9.1 percent increase over last year, according to Adobe Analytics. Adobe uses an artificial intelligence system called Sensei to sift through trillions of online shopping data points, effectively adding “retail analyst” to the list of jobs being replaced by machines. Adobe’s data shows that all of those decorations hung before Halloween are coinciding with a consumer shift toward an earlier shopping season. Online sales topped $1 billion everyday from Nov. 1 to Nov. 11. Online sellers, meanwhile, are responding by offering steep discounts earlier. Adobe reports that TVs have been marked down 10.8 percent since October 1, computers down 5 percent and toys down 9.8 percent. Read more at Houston Chronicle.