Top 5 Holiday Shopping Predictions For 2019 Revealed by Salesforce

Salesforce has outlined its top five holiday shopping predictions in its recently-released proprietary 2019 Holiday Shopping Predictions report. This report was compiled by the world’s number 1 customer relationship management (CRM) company by applying a blend of shopping data from more than half a billion shoppers across the world, a survey of more than 10,000 consumers, and a study of eCommerce sites.

Salesforce noted that retailers and shoppers lose almost an entire week of holiday shopping because of a U.S. Thanksgiving Day this year that’s six days later than last year. It was also noted that this presents a unique hurdle for retailers who seek more revenue and profit gains in less time.

Predictions Of Salesforce For The Holiday Season This Year

1. Salesforce, based on its Commerce Cloud Data, is forecasting solid and sustained U.S. digital revenue growth this holiday season at 13 percent year-over-year and total sales of $136 billion from November 1 to December 31 this year.
2. eCommerce sites that offer in-store pickup are likely to experience 28 percent higher revenue share during the last five days of the season when compared to peers that don’t offer the same advantage to consumers. Moreover, retailers that offer the option of BOPIS (buy online/pick up in-store) are likely to attract 48 percent more active digital shoppers to their sites in the last five days of the season before December 25 against those who don’t offer that option.
3. Early moments will be created by retailers to drive demand with limited inventory promotions, creative collaborations, and special product drops. It was also noted by Salesforce that Holiday 2019 spending should stretch out beyond the historical top shopping days while 50 percent of the digital revenue for the season will be completed by December 6. Huge gains in global digital revenue, which is expected to grow 19 percent year-over-year, are expected on Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
4. Where relevancy and deals flow, shoppers will go as 47 percent of shoppers plan to only purchase items on sale this holiday season and 67 percent plan to purchase more from online marketplaces such as Amazon. Promotional codes or sales are the #1 factors that would influence the holiday purchases of shoppers.
5. Nearly one in 10 purchases happen on emerging digital purchase points such as voice assistants, messaging platforms, and social media. Millennials are 3.5 times more likely to use these digital purchase points than older generations.

Salesforce said relevancy and personalization will be the perfect antidote to the discount standoff between retailers and shoppers with Artificial Intelligence coming of age.