• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, 3 hours ago

It's finally here. After months of planning and hundreds of millions of emails sent, the Black Friday weekend is upon us -- and it is not looking bad so far, judging by an update from Salesforce. 

As of 2 p.m. on Thursday, Thanksgiving Day spend in the U.S. had reached $2.6 billion -- up 5.8% YoY.

Global spending hit the $13.1 billion mark, a 7.9% hike over the prior year.  

Friday is also looking good. By 8 a.m. Friday, sales had grown to $8.4 billion -- a 3% increase YoY.

Global sales jumped by 6% to %35.6 billion. Friday is expected to drive $18 billion in U.S. sales, a 3% hike YoY. 

Apart from sales figures, there were three noteworthy developments.

One is that consumers are embracing AI agentic customer service. Their  customer service conversations with AI agents leaped 28% in the first three days of Cyber Week, st (November 25-27) compared to the same time period the week before. 

In addition, service actions completed by AI agents increased by 50%. Moreover, retailers who used shopping agents on their websites saw 9% growth on Thanksgiving YoY, versus for 2% for those without brand-owned AI shopping agents. 

The share of traffic coming from AI agent-referred channels like ChatGPT and Perplexity jumped by 200% YoY on Thanksgiving.  

“AI and agents are the operational heroes of Cyber Week," says Caila Schwartz, director of consumer insights at Salesforce.

Another shift is that order volumes fell by 2%, although the average selling price increased by 8%. This suggests that consumers are acquiring higher-priced goods instead of simply buying more. This could also reflect the impact of tariffs.  

“Despite headwinds like tariffs and higher prices, consumers are not holding back from holiday shopping,” Schwartz adds.  “Black Friday remains the ultimate draw, expected to drive a massive $18 billion in US online sales. This isn't just a shopping holiday; it's a confident commitment from consumers to buy what they want, even if it means a higher ticket price.”

Here are a few other tidbits worth noting: 

• Email growth has increased by 2%, driving a 20% average open rate and 0.7% click rate.
• The top U.S. shopping categories in terms of sales growth YoY were: Active Apparel & Footwear (19%), Food & Beverage (10%) and Luxury Apparel: 7% sales.
• The average discount on Thanksgiving was 28% in the U.S., compared to 26% globally. 
• Mobile devices accounted  80% of traffic and 75% of digital orders in the US. 
• Usage of mobile wallets was up 1% in the U.S., while Buy Now, Pay Later fell by 5%.