SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 3, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Salesforce
(NYSE: CRM), the global leader in CRM, today released its Cyber
Week insights, unveiling a record $31
billion in U.S. Cyber Week digital commerce revenue, up 15
percent from 2018. Despite a shorter holiday shopping season,
retailers leveraged advances in artificial intelligence (AI),
mobile and social to get shoppers to start early.
Top Salesforce 2019 Holiday Shopping Insights
- Brands push consumers to start holiday shopping
early: With a later Thanksgiving and shortened holiday
selling season, retailers made every day count, pushing out
discounts and promotions earlier than ever. The average discount
rate started at 23 percent on November
25th and grew steadily throughout the week, ending with a 30
percent average discount rate on Cyber Monday. Marketers kept the
steady drumbeat of engagement to promote their best deals leading
into the weekend with the number of emails sent on Black Friday up
17 percent from Thanksgiving Day. Text messaging also grew on Black
Friday, up 22 percent from Thanksgiving.
- AI eliminates guesswork for shoppers: AI-powered search
and product recommendations gave shoppers exactly what they were
looking for—when and where they were looking for it. In
fact, up to 9 percent of digital orders during Cyber Week were a
result of AI-powered product recommendations. Shoppers that
purchased products from AI-powered recommendations bought 12
percent more units per transaction across Thanksgiving and Black
Friday compared to peers who did not purchase from AI-powered
recommendations.
- Mobile is the MVP of Cyber Week: A whopping 73 percent
of global digital traffic came from mobile devices (up from 66
percent in 2018), marking for yet another groundbreaking year for
mobile. However, global mobile orders were the real breakout star,
as buying reached 55 percent (up from 50 percent in 2018), driving
the most digital traffic and orders of any device. In addition to
spikes in mobile usage, social buying through mobile also hit an
all-time high—growing 41 percent since 2018 and making up 7 percent
of mobile orders on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, a peak
day.
- Consumers come out early to research, but save purchases for
Cyber Week: Early marketing activity was successful in
generating buzz ahead of Cyber Week. During Pre-Cyber Week
(November 19 - November 25), digital
traffic was up 13 percent from 2018. Shoppers filled their online
baskets, but held out for bigger deals in the week ahead. The
strategy paid off, with digital orders growing to 18 percent during
Cyber Week this year.
- Retailers with click and collect will win later in the
season: Ecommerce sites offering in-store order pickup
will see big gains late in the season, as shoppers scramble to
complete their last minute holiday purchases. Retailers offering
this capability on their e-commerce sites will see 48 percent more
active digital shoppers and collect 28 percent more digital revenue
share in the last five days leading up to Christmas.
Salesforce Powers the Holiday Season
Salesforce
delivers massive scale in business to consumer (B2C) CRM throughout
the year, but especially during the peak holiday season. This year,
Salesforce helped retailers globally power personalized commerce,
marketing and customer service experiences throughout Cyber
Week:
- Commerce Cloud global customers saw 15 percent
digital revenue growth on Cyber Monday and 16 percent digital
revenue growth on Black Friday. From Thanksgiving through Cyber
Monday, Commerce Cloud powered digital sales were up 13 percent
year-over-year.
- Marketing Cloud emails sends grew 20 percent on Black
Friday and 13 percent on Thanksgiving as marketers engaged early
and consistently throughout Cyber Week. SMS was again the breakout
star as SMS sends grew 133 percent across Thanksgiving and Black
Friday over the same period in 2018.
- Service Cloud agents interacted with 3 percent more
cases on Black Friday compared to Thanksgiving as shopping activity
picked up before Cyber Weekend. Shoppers were more likely to ring
up service centers on Black Friday too, with calls to service
centers growing 19 percent between Thanksgiving and Black
Friday.
Comments on the News
- "With a shorter holiday season, the pressure was on brands and
retailers this Cyber Week," said Rob
Garf, VP of Strategy and Insights for Retail and Consumer
Goods, Salesforce. "Driven by savvy shoppers looking for
convenience, personalization and speed before the holiday shopping
window closes—winners broke down the friction between inspiration
and purchase with artificial intelligence, click and collect and
improved mobile usability."
Additional Resources:
- Visit the Salesforce Holiday Insights Hub
- Read the Salesforce Black Friday Flash Report
- Read the Salesforce Thanksgiving Flash Report
- Like Salesforce on Facebook
- Follow @salesforce on Twitter
2019 Salesforce Holiday Insights and Predictions
Methodology
To help retailers and brands benchmark holiday
performance, Salesforce combined data and holiday insights on
the activity of more than half a billion global shoppers across
more than 30 countries powered by Commerce Cloud, billions of
consumer engagements and millions of public social media
conversations through Marketing Cloud, and customer service data
powered by Service Cloud. Several factors are subsequently applied
to extrapolate projections and actuals for the broader retail
industry. These holiday flash reports are a derivative of the
quarterly Shopping Index.
About Salesforce
Salesforce is the global leader in
Customer Relationship Management (CRM), bringing companies closer
to their customers in the digital age. Founded in 1999, Salesforce
enables companies of every size and industry to take advantage of
powerful technologies—cloud, mobile, social, internet of things,
artificial intelligence, voice and blockchain—to create a 360° view
of their customers. For more information about Salesforce (NYSE:
CRM), visit: www.salesforce.com.
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SOURCE Salesforce