What happened
Broadly speaking, what's good for the retail industry is good for customer relationship management (CRM) king Salesforce (CRM -0.18%). On the back of some very encouraging data from the top tech shopping holiday, investors pushed the company's share price almost 6% higher on the day, nearly double the percentage gain of the S&P 500 index.
So what
According to Salesforce's internal research, Cyber Week -- i.e., the days including and following Cyber Monday -- brought in online sales of $281 billion for retailers globally.
This set a new all-time record and was 2% higher than the same period last year. The figures for Salesforce's home market of the U.S. were more encouraging; these rose by 9% to $68 billion.
As ever, online shoppers were lured by discounts offered by many providers. Salesforce's data indicates that the average discount rate was 27% globally, and even higher (30%) in the U.S. These exceeded the levels of pre-coronavirus pandemic Cyber Weeks, and were fueled by deals in the general apparel and makeup/skincare product categories.
Now what
Since it's a CRM specialist, naturally Salesforce intimated that continued success will be due at least partially to the kinds of solutions it provides.
"As we enter the home stretch of the holiday season, retailers must preserve margins by emphasizing automation to balance operational efficiency and customer loyalty," said Rob Garf, its vice president and general manager of retail. "We anticipate that the retailers who lean into store fulfillment, personalize service, and streamline returns will be winners and find more success now."
