The busiest online shopping day in history will be...
Black Friday is still No. 1 when it comes to setting sales records.
Black Friday, which falls on Nov. 24 this year, will be the busiest digital shopping day in U.S. history, exceeding Cyber Monday (Nov. 27) for the second year in a row, according to a report by Salesforce.
Mobile traffic to retail sites will grow to 60% of total across the globe this shopping season (compared to 34% for desktop and 5% for tablets). Orders placed on phones will approach 40% on big shopping days such as Black Friday, according to Salesforce's 2017 Holiday Season Predictions report.
Consumers will only have 50% of their holiday shopping completed by Sunday, Dec. 3 and 80% completed by Friday, Dec. 15. Cyber Week (Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday) will see both the deepest discounts (average of 28% off list price) and highest rate of free shipping (86% of all orders will have it). Beyond Cyber Week, Monday, Dec. 11 will have the deepest discounts and highest availability of free shipping.
In other insights from the Salesforce report:
o The most popular online shopping time for website visits and orders is from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.
o Seven to 10% of all iPhone orders will go through Apple Pay.
o The most used channels for research before buying online include website (74%), email (43 %), social media (38%) and a retailer's mobile apps (36%).
o Voice-enabled digital assistants such as Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri and Google Assistant will be used by 40% of Millennials (ages 18-36) to research merchandise before buying online.
o Fifty-eight percent of consumers think that store associates need the ability to look up product details on-demand on a mobile device in order to help deliver an excellent customer experience.
o Over a third of Millennials (35%) say the ability to search merchandise in a physical store or online catalog using an image and receiving product recommendations based on the attributes of that image would be appealing.
o Millennials are also 2.5 times more likely (28% vs. 11%) than Baby Boomers (ages 53-71) to say personalized digital offers from retailers based on their purchasing history would appeal to them.
o Despite a desire for more personalized experiences, 63% of consumers feel like retailers don't truly know who they are.
o In addition, 61% believe that in order to help deliver an excellent customer experience, store associates need visibility into all available inventory at other stores or warehouses if an item is out of stock.
"Just like watching television, holiday shopping has moved from an appointment based activity to an on-demand activity," said Rob Garf, VP industry insights, Salesforce Commerce Cloud. "Salesforce expects to see continued growth not only in mobile orders and website visits, but also in newer technologies such as mobile payments and artificial intelligence. It's not too late for retailers to make adjustments today in order to meet consumer expectations and better compete this holiday season."