• by Ray Schultz , September 25, 2017

This year’s Black Friday will be the busiest digital shopping day in U.S. history, Salesforce predicts. And email will be the second most-used channel for research.

Salesforce, a CRM service provider, has studied the activity of 500 million global shoppers in 53 countries, and billions of transactions 

It predicts that mobile traffic to retail sites will increase to 60% of the total, compared with 34% for desktop and 5% for tablets.

In addition, 60% of consumers welcome relevant product recommendations online, Salesforce adds -- and 58% desire personalized in-store services.

The most-used channels for research before buying online will be websites (74%), email (43%), social media (38%) and mobile apps (36%), the study continues. 

However, Millennials are embracing voice-enabled digital assistants like Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri and Google Assistant to research merchandise.

Millennials are more likely than Baby Boomers to welcome personalized digital offers from retailers (28% to 11%).

And 59% of Millennials say it would be helpful if stores knew about their online research before they arrived.

In addition, 35% of Millennials are attracted by the idea of getting product recommendations based on images used when searching merchandise in a store or online.

"Just like watching television, holiday shopping has moved from an appointment-based activity to an on-demand activity, “states Rob Garf, VP industry insights, Salesforce Commerce Cloud.

He adds: "Salesforce expects to see continued growth not only in mobile orders and website visits, but also in newer technologies such as mobile payments and artificial intelligence. It's not too late for retailers to make adjustments today in order to meet consumer expectations and better compete this holiday season."

Salesforce also reports: 

• Cyber Week, from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, will see the deepest discounts, with an average of 28% off list price. And 85% of all orders will be sent with free shipping.
• Only 16% of consumers have received an SMS/text from retailers, although 28% say they will buy products online via SMS/text.
• The most popular online shopping time is from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.
• Consumers will have 50% of their holiday shopping done by Sunday December 3, and 80% by Friday December 15.
• 63% of consumers think retailers don’t know who they are.