• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, December 16, 2024

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. 

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.