According to Salesforce, Thanksgiving accounted for $35.6 billion in digital sales around the world, up 6% year-over-year.
- Salesforce noted that the tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump have impacted Thanksgiving sales.
- The firm said that retailers who deployed shopper agents on their websites this holiday season saw 9% year-over-year growth on Thanksgiving
- ChatGPT was the number one driver of AI agent-referred traffic to holiday shopping websites on Thanksgiving, Salesforce added.
Salesforce’s data on Friday showed that Thanksgiving online sales in the U.S. rose 3% to $8.4 billion as of morning, as American shoppers try to snap up products at the lowest price during the all-important shopping period of the year.
According to Salesforce, Thanksgiving accounted for $35.6 billion in digital sales around the world, up 6% year-over-year. Salesforce expects Black Friday online sales in the U.S to rise 3% to $18 billion, compared to last year.
The company said that the biggest day of the year for online shopping would be Black Friday. The day is expected to drive $78 billion in online global sales, up 5% compared to last year.
Tariff Impact On Holiday Shopping
Salesforce noted that the tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump have impacted Thanksgiving sales. The firm stated that order volumes on Thanksgiving fell 2% year over year, while the average selling price rose 8% year over year.
“This indicates that this year’s sales growth was driven by consumers buying higher-priced goods rather than increased consumption,” Salesforce said.
Salesforce added that the top-performing U.S. shopping categories yesterday were Active Apparel & Footwear, which saw 19% sales growth compared to last year.
Retail And AI
Consumers’ customer service conversations with AI agents surged 28% in the first three days of Cyber Week, from November 25 to November 27, compared to the same time period the week before, according to Salesforce.
Salesforce said that retailers who deployed shopper agents on their websites this holiday season saw 9% year-over-year growth on Thanksgiving, compared to 2% growth for retailers without brand-owned AI shopper agents.
ChatGPT was the number one driver of AI agent-referred traffic to holiday shopping websites on Thanksgiving, the firm added.
Retail sentiment on Walmart trended in the ‘neutral’ territory compared to ‘bullish’ territory from a day ago, while sentiment on Target remained unchanged in the ‘neutral’ territory.
Target’s stock is down over 33% this year, and Walmart, which has consistently tried to remain competitive with pricing, saw its stock jump almost 21%.
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