SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 2, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Salesforce (NYSE:
CRM), the global leader in CRM, today released its new consumer
insights and predictions for the 2019 holiday shopping season.
"With six fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas,
retailers will feel the pressure to create and fulfill demand
before and after Cyber Week," said Rob
Garf, VP of Strategy and Insights for Retail and Consumer
Goods, Salesforce. "That said, our data indicates a very strong
digital season is ahead. Retailers that provide more personalized
experiences, click and collect offerings, and of course, unbeatable
prices, will be the ones that succeed this holiday season."
Despite a shorter selling season, Salesforce forecasts sustained
and solid U.S. digital commerce revenue growth this holiday season
at 13 percent year over year (YOY), with total sales reaching a
record $136 billion in the United States and $768 billion globally. Salesforce's top
predictions for the 2019 holiday shopping season include:
A Shortened Season Will Push Retailers to Create Early
Moments
With Thanksgiving falling later in the year, shoppers have six
fewer days between Cyber Week (Nov. 25-Dec.
2) and Christmas to make their holiday purchases. This will
result in revenue being more evenly distributed throughout Cyber
Week. In fact, an increase in early bird shopping on the Tuesday
and Wednesday before Thanksgiving will drive 19 percent YOY growth
in global digital revenue. For Black Friday, digital revenue is
forecast at $7.3 billion in the U.S.
and $39.6 billion globally. Cyber
Monday will bring in an addition $8.2
billion in the U.S and $32.2
globally.
These early shoppers will explore new channels – such as
voice-enabled devices, messaging platforms and social media – to
gain inspiration and make purchases. Social will be a strong
channel for early Cyber Week mobile buyers, with 10 percent of
mobile purchases referred directly from social channels on the
Wednesday before Thanksgiving. This day represents the highest rate
of mobile purchases referred from social channels all season, even
higher than for peak shopping days like Black Friday.
Click and Collect Will Give the Short Season Longer
Legs
As shoppers race to finish their orders before the Christmas
shipping deadline of December 14,
retailers will look to drive revenue growth in the shorter season
with click and collect, also known as "buy online, pick up
in-store." With 83 percent of shoppers planning to shop in a
physical store this holiday season, the convenience of click and
collect extends the digital purchasing and shopping window well
beyond the shipping deadline.
Retailers offering click and collect will drive 28 percent more
revenue share across their industry during the 5 days before
Christmas. This is in large part due to the fact that shoppers are
48 percent more active on sites that offer click and collect during
this timeframe. An active shopper is defined as those who create
baskets, start checkouts, engage in site search and other similarly
desired shopping activities.
Gen Z Lives on the Edge this Holiday Season, Pushes Social
Buying to Double Digits
Today, nearly one in ten digital purchases occur on emerging
digital purchase points like social media, messaging platforms and
voice-enabled devices. These channels are at the "edge" of brand
and retailer properties.1 In fact, the preference for
shopping at the edge is even more pronounced with Gen Zers, who are
3.5 times more likely than Baby Boomers to use these emerging
purchase points.2
As Gen Z gains more purchasing power and influence than older
generations, their preferences will bolster shopping on the edge.
For the first time ever, social buying is expected to creep into
the double digits this season. In fact, 37 percent of Gen Zers say
Instagram will be their preferred source for holiday shopping
inspiration. A rise in purchases on other alternative channels,
like gaming platforms, is expected as well, with one in four
millennials and Gen Zers expressing an interest in using gaming
consoles to shop.3
Cyber Monday Remains the Best Day for Digital
Discounts
Despite plateauing free shipping rates, discounts on merchandise
will continue to rise, and for good reason. In fact, 47 percent of
shoppers go so far as saying they will only buy items on sale this
holiday season.4 Shoppers also say sales or promo codes
are the number one factor influencing their holiday purchases, with
two-thirds paying more attention to companies' emails during the
holidays as they keep an eye out for attractive
deals.5
This season, retailers will reward discount-hunting shoppers
with even greater digital discounts on merchandise before Cyber
Week begins – with discount rates growing 9 percent the week before
Cyber Week. Cyber Monday will remain the best day of the year for
scoring the biggest digital discounts, with an average discount
rate of 29 percent.
Additional Resources:
- Visit the 2019 Salesforce Holiday Insights Data Center
here
- Check out the 2019 Holiday Predictions blog post here
- Like Salesforce on Facebook
- Follow @Salesforce on Twitter
2019 Salesforce Holiday Insights and Predictions
Methodology
To help retailers and brands benchmark holiday performance,
Salesforce analyzes aggregated data to produce holiday
insights from 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.
To qualify for inclusion in the analysis set, a digital commerce
site must have transacted throughout the analysis period, in this
case, November 17, 2016 through
December 26, 2018, and meet a monthly
minimum visit threshold. Additional data hygiene factors are
applied to ensure consistent metric calculation.
Any forecasts noted within the holiday flash reports or the
Shopping Index are forward-looking projections based on current and
prior values and as such should not be read as guarantees of future
performance or results.
The holiday reports and the Shopping Index are not
indicative of the operational performance of Salesforce or its
reported financial metrics including GMV growth and comparable
customer GMV growth.
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-degree view of
their customers. For more information about Salesforce (NYSE: CRM),
visit: www.salesforce.com.
1 Connected Shoppers Report, Third Edition, coming
October 15
2 Connected Shoppers Report, Third Edition, coming
October 15
3 Connected Shoppers Report, Third Edition, coming
October 15
4 Connected Shoppers Report, Third Edition, coming
October 15
5 Connected Shoppers Report, Third Edition, coming
October 15
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SOURCE Salesforce