Peak season is coming! Global online sales will exceed one trillion US dollars

For sellers, the holiday season is often the last chance of the year to seek sales growth and turn things around .

But this holiday season, many sellers are not happy.

Affected by the market environment, consumer confidence has generally weakened, and there is excess inventory of goods. At the same time, Amazon has recently officially announced that it will increase FBA shipping fees during the holiday shopping peak period.

However, according to the latest research report on the holiday shopping season released by Salesforce , consumer shopping demand is strong during this year's holiday season, and there is great opportunity for growth.

Salesforce data shows that global online sales will reach $ 1.19 trillion during the 2023 holiday shopping season ( November 1 to December 31), an expected increase of 4% over last year's sales.

Online sales grew 5% during the 2022 holiday season, essentially flat.

It is worth noting that among online consumer orders during this year’s holiday season, the shopping format of “buy online, pick up in store” is very popular, and it is estimated that 60% of online orders will be completed in this way.

With the widespread application of artificial intelligence technology in the field of e-commerce, consumers have enjoyed a more personalized shopping experience. Among them, 17% of consumers said that they got shopping inspiration through artificial intelligence. In this holiday season, artificial intelligence technology is expected to drive global consumers' online shopping spending by $194 billion.

During this year's holiday season, consumers are still very concerned about the platform's discount promotions.

In order to attract consumers, many retailers will launch discount promotions in advance. Take Amazon as an example, it will bring the "Prime Big Deal Days" promotion for Amazon Prime members in October this year .

Salesforce also found through the survey that the seven days from Cyber ​​Monday to Black Friday are very critical, because 25% of online consumption will be concentrated in these days. While consumers are shopping crazily, they also have higher requirements for returns.

If the seller’s return policy is not clear and simple enough, it will affect 21% of consumers’ online shopping decisions.

Rob Garf, vice president and general manager of Salesforce Retail, believes that although the current growth rate of consumer online spending has slowed down, if major retailers conduct discount promotions based on demand and integrate artificial intelligence activities, it can effectively stimulate consumer shopping enthusiasm during the holiday season.

According to the " 2023 Holiday Insights" report released by retail data company 84.51° , the categories with high demand during this holiday season are gifts, seasonal or limited edition snacks , desserts and alcoholic beverages. Among them, 46% of consumers plan to buy gifts during this holiday season, 44% of consumers plan to buy seasonal or limited edition snacks , 42 % of consumers plan to buy desserts , and 35% of consumers plan to buy alcoholic beverages .

At the same time, branded products remain very popular, with 76% of consumers saying they will buy branded products during the holiday season.

As the holiday season approaches, sellers must make preparations in advance to seize the growth opportunities of this year's holiday season.