Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales remain incredibly popular with Australian shoppers, who participated in a record $314.9 billion in global online sales this year, according to the latest Cyber Week data from Salesforce.  

Based on an analysis of 1.5 billion shoppers and 1.6 trillion page views across the Salesforce Platform, the annual report found that consumers largely held off on spending to capitalise on Cyber Week deals, with global sales up 6 per cent on last year. 

Interest in the sales remains high locally, with traffic growth from Australian shoppers up 8 per cent YoY, compared to a global average of 2 per cent. 

Conversion was slightly behind the 2023 numbers, at 3.4 per cent this year, versus 3.7 per cent last year, even as Australia saw a slight decline (-1.3 per cent YoY) in order growth. Decreases in sales and order growth in Australia could be due to less than-enticing discounts for shoppers; the average discount rate offered by local retailers this year was down -4 per cent on last year to 25 per cent. 

The report also revealed mobile devices drove 70 per cent of global online orders this year, and Black Friday proved its staying power as a cornerstone of the shopping season by driving $74.4 billion in global digital sales. AI, including agents, also played a pivotal role, influencing $60 billion in sales through personalised offers and engagement, highlighting how this technology is reshaping the retail landscape and boosting consumer engagement. 

Salesforce view: “While Black Friday and Cyber Monday are clearly popular moments on the retail calendar, the response from Australian shoppers this year shows that underwhelming discounts across the board – and ongoing concerns about the cost of living – have affected the hype,” said Jane Brown, Senior Vice President, Enterprise, Salesforce ANZ.

“However, the rise in use of AI – and especially autonomous agents – to help manage these peak shopping moments, both for businesses and consumers, is notable. It provides a glimpse into the evolution of retail, where personalisation and mobile-first approaches will influence consumer behaviour and deliver improved sales and customer service outcomes for retailers. Australian retailers will need to move quickly to ensure they’re able to take advantage of this momentum ahead of the new year.” 

Global Cyber Week 2024 Salesforce Shopping Insights:

• Online sales and order growth reached new peaks: 
  • Growth for the first four weeks of the holiday season (Nov. 5 – Dec. 2) was strong, up 8% worldwide.
    • Cyber Week: Digital sales across Cyber Week reached $76 billion in the U.S. (up 7% YoY) and $314.9 billion globally (up 6% YoY). 
    • Black Friday: Global online sales reached $74.4 billion (up 5% YoY) and $17.5 billion (up 7% YoY) in the U.S. This was the strongest shopping day of the week.
    • Cyber Monday: Global online sales reached $12.8 billion in the U.S. (up 3% YoY) and $49.7 billion globally (up 2% YoY).

• AI and agents play a big part in Cyber Week: Retailers like Saks have doubled down on the use of AI, including agents, to power shopping experiences this season.
  • $60 billion of global online sales were influenced by AI and agents for product recommendations, targeted offers, and conversational customer service support.
  • Retailers using generative AI and agents to fuel service experiences saw a 2% higher conversion rate compared to retailers who didn’t use the technology.
  • Retailers used generative AI and agents 18% more during Cyber Week than the previous week, likely to drive efficiency and personalization for customers.
  • Shoppers used AI- and agent-powered chat for customer service 38% more than they did in the previous week.

• Mixed bag of discounts drove mixed bag of results: Despite the threat of growing consumer appeal and low prices offered Chinese marketplaces like Temu, Shein, and AliExpress, Western retailers did not offer significant discounts to compete.
  • The global average discount rate was 26%, down 1% YoY.
  • Verticals with the highest global average discount rates included:
    • Makeup (40%)
    • General apparel (34%)
    • Skincare (33%)
      
• Mobile conversion picks up the pace: As consumers of all ages grow increasingly comfortable with mobile shopping and the mobile buying experience gets easier, the gap between mobile traffic and mobile orders is narrowing. This trend underscores a growing consumer willingness to make significant and high-value purchases directly from their smartphones.
  • More than 80% of both U.S. and global ecommerce traffic originated from a mobile device during Cyber Week.
  • In total, mobile accounted for $220 billion in sales globally and $53.3 billion in the United States. 
  • Mobile wallet usage also increased 16% globally during the week.

Salesforce powers Cyber Week shopping with trust, scale, and AI

This year, the Salesforce Platform helped digital retailers around the world drive profitable growth and scale, with nearly 100% uptime, to reach shoppers across all buying channels with agentic and personalised experiences. This was made possible by:

• Commerce Cloud: Commerce Cloud powered nearly 50 million orders on digital storefronts across Cyber Week with 99.999% uptime.
• Marketing Cloud: Nearly 56.5 billion marketing messages were sent via Marketing Cloud, accounting for a 5% YoY increase.
• Service Cloud: Service Cloud helped customers field and resolve more than 3.8 billion cases. 
• AI: Salesforce powered nearly 60 billion AI-powered product recommendations across Cyber Week, signaling 21% YoY growth. Salesforce also observed a 32.2% YoY increase in AI-powered chatbots during the week.
• Agentforce: Agentforce generated 1.67 million Large Language Model (LLM) replies and decisions to execute actions for retailers during Cyber Week.

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Explore further:

• Compare Cyber Week to Salesforce’s 2024 holiday season forecast
• Visit the Holiday Shopping HQ for real-time Cyber Week results

2024 Salesforce holiday insights and predictions methodology

Powered by Agentforce, Commerce Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and Service Cloud, Salesforce analyzed aggregated data to produce holiday insights from the activity of more than 1.5 billion global shoppers across more than 89 countries, with a focus on 18 key markets: the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, the Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan, Australia, and New Zealand), Switzerland, Latin America (LAM), the Middle East and Africa (MEA), Eastern Europe, Belgium, and the Nordics. This battery of benchmarks provides a deep look into the last nine quarters and the current state of digital commerce. Several factors are applied to extrapolate macroeconomic figures for the broader retail industry. These  and these results are not indicative of Salesforce performance.

The prediction data that we present are from proprietary Salesforce research. The calculations we use blend first-party and third-party data, as well as several market assumptions, to generate the data points we present.