Online spending during the holidays increased 3% worldwide to a record $1.2 trillion, with sales in the United States rising 4% to $282 billion.
That's according to a new report from Salesforce, which uses Agentforce, Commerce Cloud, It aggregates data from various cloud services such as Marketing Cloud and Service Cloud. December 31, 2024.
Overall, this number is slightly below Salesforce's expectations. Salesforce expected online sales to increase 2% ($1.19 trillion) during the holiday period. Despite that shortfall, the main dates saw outstanding performances. Black Friday transaction value increased 5% to a record $74.4 billion, while Cyber Monday sales increased 3% to $49.7 billion. And Thanksgiving generated $33.6 billion in sales worldwide, up 6%.
However, there is another stream that can fall below these numbers. That's a higher rate of return than normal. Salesforce said it has already recovered $122 billion from products returned by consumers to retailers. This is a 28% increase compared to last year and could eventually reach $133 billion, according to the report.
Kyla Schwartz, director of consumer insights at Salesforce, said this is “a cause for concern,” but added that other forces could help offset these drags. In fact, Salesforce is one of many companies in the market building AI solutions for retailers. The pitch is that AI investments made by retailers will lead to lower operating costs and a more personalized and engaging sales channel for customers. According to Salesforce, AI and agents “influenced” holiday spending through targeted offers, personalized support, and product recommendations, increasing 6% year-over-year to $229 billion. Specifically, the adoption of AI-powered customer service increased by 42%.
“Retailers who have deployed AI and agents are already seeing benefits, but the new year will see the use of these tools as retailers seek to minimize revenue loss from returns and re-engage with shoppers. will become even more important,” Schwartz said.