The biggest online spending ahead of Christmas trading will occur in the first week of December, predicts the Adobe Digital Index.

While online spending during the holidays is expected to remain steady year on year, the Adobe Digital Index predicts Australians will spend around US$7 billion online in the lead-up to Christmas.

The Australian Retailers Association (ARA) and Roy Morgan Research forecast that Australian shoppers will spend $46.7 billion in retail stores over Christmas trading.

Adobe’s global online shopping predictions are based on an analysis of 55 million product SKUs, aggregated and anonymous data of more than one trillion retail websites over the last seven years.

“Holiday shopping is a huge investment and consumers get more sophisticated every year with their online and mobile shopping in order to secure the most popular gifts at the best prices,” said Adobe Digital Index principal research analyst, Tamara Gaffney.

“The average Australian internet user will spend a total of US$328 online during November and December, driving around 18 per cent of total online sales for the year. In 2015 we expect an increase in online sales during Click Frenzy on 17 November. However, we are predicting the biggest day for online spending will be 7 December.”

Gaffney said mobile is again playing a significant role in holiday shopping behaviour.

“Over the next two months we expect 14 per cent of e-commerce purchases in Australia to be transacted via smartphones and around 8 per cent via tablets. Shoppers will also browse on their mobile devices, 31 per cent via smartphones and 12 per cent via tablets.”

Around the world, China is expected to have the highest level of online spending during the holiday season at US$150 billion, followed by the United States at over US$80 billion. In Europe, Adobe is predicting the United Kingdom to have the highest online spend at around US$27 billion, and in Asia Pacific, Japan is expected to see the second highest online spend in the region with US$37 billion in online sales (a 5 per cent year-on-year growth) predicted, followed by Australia at US$7 billion.

Want more Inside Retail? Subscribe to Inside Retail Weekly now and get our premium print publication delivered to your door every week.