Global online Cyber Week sales rose 6% YoY
while U.S. online sales grew 5%
Black Friday remained the largest U.S. online
shopping day of the year, bringing in $16.4 billion in sales in the
U.S and $70.9 billion globally
AI drove $51 billion of online sales over the
seven-day Cyber Week period
Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), the #1 AI CRM, today unveiled its 2023
Cyber Week figures, analyzing shopping data from over 1.5 billion
shoppers across its Salesforce Customer 360 platform (including 29
of the top 30 U.S. online retailers). Overall global sales were up
6% year over year (YoY), hitting $298 billion, with U.S. sales
reaching $70.8 billion and increasing 5% YoY.
Growth was driven primarily by order volume, rather than
inflation, signaling increased consumer demand for the first time
in more than five quarters. While there was a steady drum beat of
promotions early in the season, diligent and patient shoppers held
out for – and got – attractive Cyber Week deals. This delivered a
solid Cyber Week performance as consumers sought value and
convenience.
Top Cyber Week 2023 Salesforce shopping insights
(Tuesday, Nov. 21 through Monday, Nov. 27, 2023):
●
Online sales and traffic spiked on Black Friday and Cyber
Monday: Digital sales across Cyber Week reached $298 billion
globally (a 6% increase YoY) with traffic seeing a 5% increase YoY.
Attractive discount rates led to surprisingly strong sales growth
on the two biggest online shopping days of the year: ◌
Black
Friday: Online sales increased 8% globally, 9% in the U.S., and
8% in Europe YoY. ◌
Cyber Monday: Online sales increased 5%
globally, 3% in the U.S., and 10% in Europe YoY. ●
AI wins over
shoppers: Seamless and personalized shopping, enabled by AI,
helped fuel online growth and customer profitability. $51 billion
of global online sales were influenced by AI in areas such as
targeted offers, product recommendations, and generative AI-powered
chat services. ●
Consumers shopped mostly on mobile: A
record-breaking 79% of Cyber Week ecommerce traffic was on mobile
phones, up from 76% in 2022. Given this, social traffic on mobile
was a critical acquisition channel – representing 10% of all
referrals to retailer websites. ●
Marketing campaigns
capitalized on mobile shoppers: Marketers continued to embrace
alternative communication channels to engage on-the-go consumers.
The number of messages sent via push notifications, SMS, and
streaming services (OTT) combined grew 37% this Cyber Week –
compared to a modest 9% growth for traditional email. ●
Discounts rose to meet pent-up demand: After lackluster
deals earlier in the season, heavier discounts enticed
price-conscious consumers to buy throughout Cyber Week. Discount
rates rose to 27% globally and 29% in the U.S. on average
throughout the week – representing the best deals of the holiday
season. Verticals with the highest global discount rates: ●
Makeup (38%)
●
General Apparel (33%)
●
Skincare (33%)
●
Active Apparel (32%)
◌ Highest U.S. discount rates: ●
General Apparel (38%)
●
Health and Beauty (combined) (34%)
●
Home Combined (24%)
●
Active Apparel & Footwear (24%)
●
More transparent discounts led to fewer returns: Retailers
listened to shoppers’ feedback from past years and were more
transparent regarding their discounts and return policies. After an
unprecedented high rate of returns during last Cyber Week – where
consumers exchanged gifts to price adjust for better deals – return
rates fell back to normal levels (5%) for the week. ●
Single-brand retailers captured market share: With enhanced
experiences and attractive discounts, single-brand retailers
(retailers that exclusively sell only one brand’s products) saw
about double the higher online growth compared to retailers
carrying multiple brands. ◌ Globally: ●
Online sales growth: single-brand = +8%
vs. multi-brand = +5%
●
Discount rate: single-brand = 29% vs.
multi-brand = 17%
◌ U.S.: ●
Online sales growth: single-brand = 7% vs.
multi-brand = 3%
●
Discount rate: single-brand = 31% vs.
multi-brand = 19%
●
Alternative payment methods break down friction at
checkout: Amid inflationary pressure and shrinking budgets,
U.S. shoppers used alternative payment options like Buy Now Pay
Later (BNPL) to finance purchases – with a 8% increase in orders
YoY. U.S. consumers also used mobile wallets to conveniently
complete transactions on their phones – usage increased 54% in the
U.S. YoY, with Apple Pay driving the majority of the growth (54%).
●
Automation gave time back to retailers and consumers:
Retailers leaned into automation on some of the biggest online
shopping days of the year. Chatbot messages across Cyber weekend
increased by 79% YoY globally.
Salesforce powers Cyber Week shopping with Trust, Scale, and
AI
This year, Salesforce helped retailers around the world drive
profitable growth and scale, with 100% uptime, to reach shoppers
across all buying channels. With consumers continuing to shop
online, delivering fast, easy, and personalized digital experiences
is more important than ever and was made possible by:
- Commerce Cloud: Commerce Cloud powered nearly 50 million
orders on digital storefronts across Cyber Week with 100%
uptime (zero downtime), resulting in a 16% compound annual
order growth rate (CAGR) over the last five years.
- Marketing Cloud: Over 53 billion marketing messages were
sent via Marketing Cloud this Cyber Week, accounting for a 7%
increase YoY.
- Service Cloud: During the busiest shopping week of the
year, Service Cloud helped customers field and resolve over 3.7
billion case interactions, and observed a 10% YoY increase in
AI-powered chatbot sessions.
- AI: Salesforce powered more than 49 billion AI-powered
product recommendations across Cyber Week.
Soundbites:
- “Executives are realizing that you can’t spell holidays without
AI. Retailers are embracing this innovative technology to
personalize shopping experiences and increase customer
profitability during the holiday season and beyond,” said Rob Garf,
VP and GM of Retail.
- “The mobile phone has been the remote control for holiday
shopping. Consumers are embracing mobile wallets to break down
friction between discovering on social and purchasing on mobile,”
Garf continued.
Explore further:
- Check out Salesforce’s 2023 holiday season predictions and
visit the Holiday Shopping HQ for real-time Cyber Week results
- Hear Michael Affronti’s thoughts on the influence of AI on the
holiday shopping season
2023 Salesforce holiday insights and predictions
methodology
Powered by Commerce Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and Service Cloud,
Salesforce analyzed aggregated data to produce holiday insights
from the activity of more than 1.5 billion global shoppers across
more than 64 countries, with a focus on 12 key markets: the U.S.,
Canada, U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, the
Netherlands, Australia/New Zealand, the Asia-Pacific region
(excluding Japan, Australia, and New Zealand), and the Nordics.
This battery of benchmarks provides a deep look into the last nine
quarters and the current state of digital commerce. Several factors
are applied to extrapolate macroeconomic figures for the broader
retail industry.
The prediction data that we present are from proprietary
Salesforce research. The calculations we use blend first-party and
third-party data, as well as several market assumptions, to
generate the data points presented.
The Salesforce holiday predictions are not indicative of the
operational performance of Salesforce or its reported financial
metrics including GMV growth and comparable customer GMV
growth.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231128458635/en/
Gianna Dimick gianna.dimick@salesforce.com
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