Retailers are on track to realize $848 billion
in sales during the 2024 holiday season -- a 4% increase YoY, according to new statistics from Salesforce.
AI will influence $200 billion. Indeed, retailers have
increased their use of generative AI and agents by 23% week-over-week since Cyber Monday.
“By handling questions, order issues and recommendations with a
personalized touch, they are making last-minute gifting feel effortless,” says Caila Schwartz, director of consumer insights at Salesforce.“These retailers will win a
bigger slice of the holiday pie.”
They also better have real-time email notification capabilities in place.
But there are challenges.
Roughly 8.3% of purchases have been returned November 1, compared to 6.6% last year. And Salesforce projects that over $133 billion worth of orders will be returned this season.
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On a
positive note, BOPIS (buy online, pick up in store) accounted for 21% of online orders in the week following Cyber Monday. And Salesforce predicts that BOPIS will provide almost 40% of orders in the
weekend prior to Christmas.
Mobile shopping now dominates, accounting for 69% of all online orders since November 1. Salesforce forecasts that mobile will drive 83% of all online traffic and
76% of all online orders from December 23-25.
And shoppers are increasingly using their mobile wallets and the BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) option. Mobile wallet payments
vi Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal jumped by 16% globally in the week after Cyber Monday.
What’s more, Salesforce predicts that nearly 24% of all global
holiday-season orders will be paid for with mobile wallet options.