Global Cyber Week sales – including Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Thanksgiving Day – increased by 36% over 2019 to $270bn. This data is based on Salesforce’s analysis of the shopping behaviour of over 1 billion global shoppers on the Salesforce Customer 360 platform.
“Salesforce data also shows that shoppers spent more time online than they did in previous years, with an average visit duration of 5.2 minutes," says Robin Fisher, area vice president, Salesforce Emerging Markets.
The company still expects overall holiday sales to be flat despite this digital growth, with anticipated overall sales of around $5.1tn, according to predictions released in October.
“The increase in digital sales is not expected to make up for the decline in brick and mortar sales,” comments Fisher.
Additionally, Fisher notes that a growth in online holiday shopping will also likely result in a spike in returns. Salesforce is predicting that in total, $280bn in online purchases are expected to be returned globally – 30% of all purchases made.
