Brainshark Named Best Training Solution in 2019 Golden Bridge Awards

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October 2, 2019

Brainshark Named Best Training Solution in 2019 Golden Bridge Awards

Brainshark’s Suite of Sales Readiness Solutions Brought Home the Gold for Creating Better-Prepared, Agile and More Effective Sales Teams

Brainshark, Inc., delivering SaaS-based sales enablement and readiness solutions, announced it is a winner in the 2019 Golden Bridge Awards. Brainshark’s suite of sales readiness solutions was named a gold (highest-level) winner in the “Best Product: Training” category – recognized for fostering better-prepared, results-driven sales forces.

The Golden Bridge Awards celebrate the world’s best in organizational performance, products and services, executives, management teams and more. Organizations worldwide – public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small – are eligible to submit nominations. This marks Brainshark’s sixth year as a winner in the program.

Brainshark’s sales readiness platform – also honored last month in The 2019 International Business Awards® – prepares sales teams with the knowledge and resources they need, right when they need them, so they’re ready for each unique selling situation. Judges recognized Brainshark’s multi-pronged approach to sales enablement, with solutions for:

Sales content authoring – making it easy for anyone to create high-impact, multimedia content that drives sales learning and effectiveness.
Sales onboarding and continuous training – preparing sales teams to deliver value in every buyer interaction.
Sales coaching and practice – enabling reps to submit videos (pitching products, responding to common objections, etc.) in response to coaching assignments for feedback and evaluation. Brainshark also provides an award-winning artificial intelligence (AI)-powered engine that processes these videos – helping streamline coaching and supplementing manager feedback.

Brendan Cournoyer, vice president of marketing at Brainshark, said: “Today’s client-facing teams need a lot of knowledge to be effective, and that information is always changing. It’s why sales readiness has become such a critical discipline. Year after year, research shows that readiness and training services – such as onboarding, skills development and coaching – are the most critical responsibilities of sales enablement. We’re extremely proud to be recognized again in the Golden Bridge Awards for the impact our platform makes every day to elevate those strategies and for our commitment to driving perpetual sales readiness for our customers.”

Qubit Start for Peaks Includes Proven Tactics to Increase Retail Revenue Throughout the 2019 Holiday Season

STS News Desk

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October 2, 2019

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Qubit Start for Peaks Includes Proven Tactics to Increase Retail Revenue Throughout the 2019 Holiday Season

New Personalization Package Decreases Resource Impact on Brands and Accelerates Time to Revenue

Qubit, the leading marketing personalization technology provider, announced Qubit Start for Peaks. The solution provides retail brands with an expedited on-ramp to build and deliver personalization experiences in order to fully leverage peak holiday shopping periods, including Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Qubit Start for Peaks includes social proof, urgency messaging and product recommendations that are proven to drive an average of 6% more revenue per customer. In addition, the solution is offered as a four-month package that includes technology integration services to speed the implementation cycle to a couple of weeks and decreases the resource impact on brands. Key features include:

– Gift signposting: Dynamically change the gift badging on your product listing page without the need for IT

– Product personalization: Personalize product content based on whether shoppers are gifting and inspire them to find more relevant items

– Adding urgency: Let visitors know when items are low in stock or at-risk of not being available by Christmas

Urgency messaging is a highly effective personalization tactic that benefits customers by being totally transparent about when products are in-stock and delivery times, driving urgency and boosting conversion rates. Manor AG, one of Europe’s largest department store chains, saw a 9% uplift in revenue per visitor (RPV) through the use of this tactic.

“The holiday season can make, or break, the year for many retailers,” said Leah Anathan, CMO, Qubit. “Qubit Start for Peaks brings together proven personalization tactics to enable retail brands to take full advantage of the season. These strategies combined with a fast implementation period means every retail brand can personalize to millions of expectant customers.”

Brainshark To Deliver Featured Presentation at Sales Enablement Society 2019 Annual Conference

STS News Desk

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October 2, 2019

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Brainshark To Deliver Featured Presentation at Sales Enablement Society 2019 Annual Conference

Sales Readiness Leader to Share How Sales Force Engagement Promotes Talent Retention

Brainshark, Inc., delivering SaaS-based sales enablement and readiness solutions, will share strategies for driving sales talent retention at the Sales Enablement Society’s 2019 Annual Conference (SES 2019), Oct. 16-18, in San Antonio, Texas. Dedicated to “Driving the Future of Sales Enablement,” this year’s event will showcase how people, experience and technology can combine to drive sales growth.

The Sales Enablement Society is a volunteer organization. Members meet, engage and network with people involved in all facets of sales enablement – sharing goals, successes, feedback, questions and challenges.

Brainshark’s conference presentation will explore a persistent challenge for organizations across industries: sales rep turnover. A Glassdoor survey found 81% of sales professionals are looking for a new job. Yet each departing representative costs companies more than $97,000 annually, according to industry data, in lost recruiting and training costs, as well as lost sales. So attracting, retaining and maximizing sales talent are critical areas.

Brainshark’s presentation will explore how sales enablement can help. Details include:

Title: “Generation X, Y or Z: How Do You Keep Me? Engagement is Key”

When: Friday, Oct. 18, from 10:15-11 a.m. CT

Where: The Westin Riverwalk Hotel, San Antonio, Texas

Speakers:

Liz Pulice, vice president of sales enablement, Brainshark
Julie Greenfield, director of sales enablement and readiness, Brainshark

Highlights: Sales rep turnover is a top-of-mind issue for most executives, but not enough attention is paid to the relationship between turnover and engagement.

Fostering a fully engaged sales force – one that’s emotionally committed to both solving buyer problems and achieving its organization’s goals – has a dramatic, positive impact on retention. A new, Brainshark-sponsored study from CSO Insights, the research division of Miller Heiman Group, reports that “engaged sales forces experienced far lower voluntary and involuntary turnover rates than unengaged sales forces”¹ – with voluntary turnover, for example, dropping 30%.

Attendees will learn what sales rep engagement means and how to drive it, including among different generations, personality types and learning styles in the workforce. The presentation will also share how sales enablement departments can spearhead talent recruitment, development and retention initiatives that positively impact productivity.

“Happy and engaged sales reps often lead to happy and engaged customers,” Pulice said. “With the right combination of onboarding, skills development, career pathing and more, you can create an environment where reps want to learn and want to stay – and where they’re maximizing the value they deliver to customers and prospects.”

New Research Shows Businesses Aren’t Proactive Enough When It Comes To Managing Online Reputation

STS News Desk

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October 2, 2019

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New Research Shows Businesses Aren’t Proactive Enough When It Comes To Managing Online Reputation

Recent Data Suggests That Businesses Aren’t Doing Enough to Proactively Protect and Build Their Online Reputation. Small Businesses Need to Take Active Steps to Promote Their Own Brand Online, Including Regularly Monitoring Their Online Reputation, Responding to Reviews, and Promoting Their Own Brand Online.

To stay ahead of potential crises, most small businesses (88%) monitor their online reputation at least quarterly, according to a report by Clutch, the leading B2B ratings and reviews firm.

Monitoring is only one part of an effective online reputation management (ORM) strategy, though. Clutch’s research shows that small businesses should be more proactive by:

Managing reviews
Promoting their brand on social media
Diversifying their communications strategy

Respond to Reviews and Ask Happy Customers to Write Positive Reviews

Responding to reviews is important, but businesses can do more to grow their collection of positive online reviews.

Only 40% of small businesses encourage customers to leave positive reviews.

According to Alan Rabinowitz, CEO of SEO Image, an internet marketing agency, a positive review can go a long way in building a brand’s reputation.

“It’s not hard to get a happy client to write a review, but it does take a little bit of nudging,” Rabinowitz said.

Promote Your Own Brand on Social Media Through Valuable Content

Social media is an effective tool for businesses that want to monitor and manage their online reputation, but it can also be an invaluable brand-building tool.

Most small businesses, however, use social media as a reactive rather than proactive tool: Only 44% of small businesses promote positive content about their brand on social media.

While positive content may include highlights of positive reviews and testimonials, it can also include original or curated content that addresses the needs and interests of the target audience.

“You want to help your target audience make the best decision for them – not just say how great you are,” said Lauren Elliott, marketing communications manager at TheeDigital, a web design and internet marketing agency.

Use Multiple Communication Channels

Small businesses should also consider adopting an omnichannel communication strategy that includes online and offline channels

Nearly two-thirds of small businesses (64%) share announcements with customers using 2 or more communication platforms such as email, social media, and direct mail.

Businesses should consider their audience, the message they want to convey, and the message’s call to action when deciding where to communicate a particular message to consumers.

A business’s online reputation starts with consistent monitoring but it doesn’t end there: In 2020, small businesses need to encourage customers to leave positive reviews, promote their own brand on social media, and adopt an omnichannel communications strategy.

Clutch surveyed 529 small business owners and managers in the US

At 50%, Connected TV Hits New High of Video AD Impressions Served by Extreme Reach

STS News Desk

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October 2, 2019

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At 50%, Connected TV Hits New High of Video AD Impressions Served by Extreme Reach

With New Insights on Automotive and Direct-To-Consumer Categories, Q2 Video Benchmarks Report Shows Strength of Premium Publishers for DTC Brands While Autos Lag Behind in Adoption of CTV

Connected TV (CTV) has established itself as a brand building essential that is clearly here to stay. It now accounts for a full 50% of all video ad impressions–twice that of mobile–according to the latest Video Benchmarks report from Extreme Reach (ER), the complete asset management solution for TV and video ads. This marks the fifth consecutive quarter that CTV has outranked mobile in the number of impressions served by device.

ER’s quarterly Video Benchmarks reports are based on data from the company’s AdBridge™ platform, and specifically its video ad server. The data is used to track emerging trends through a range of metrics, including video ad completion and viewability rates, and according to destination (i.e., premium publisher vs. media aggregator) and device (i.e., desktop, mobile, tablet and CTV). This latest version marks the addition of metrics for two advertising verticals: automotive and direct-to-consumer (DTC).

As more viewers incorporate over-the-top devices and streaming services into their media consumption habits (nearly two-thirds of the population, according to eMarketer), advertisers are following suit, attracted not just by the number of consumers viewing content on CTV, but by the performance of the ads. With an average completion rate of 95 percent, the ability to engage audiences for longer durations and the platform’s reliance on premium inventory that significantly lowers exposure to ad fraud, it’s no wonder that ad dollars allocated to CTV are on the rise. Globally, analyst firm Digital TV Research estimates CTV ad revenues will reach $129.3 billion in 2023, almost double that of 2018.

“The growing prominence of non-linear TV options is giving advertisers a wealth of new opportunities for engaging with consumers in meaningful ways, especially when you consider the new targeting technologies that enable unprecedented levels of personalization,” said James Shears, VP of Advanced Advertising for Extreme Reach. “It’s important for marketers to broaden their focus and take advantage of the fragmentation while finding those devices that work best for their brands.”

“We are excited to be able to offer additional insights on ad performance that can help brands and agencies navigate a constantly changing media landscape,” said Mary Vestewig, Senior Director, Video Account Management for Extreme Reach. “Advertisers have more avenues for using video to captivate consumers than ever before. But they face more complexity in getting their creative out there. Our aim is always to help simplify that process with the technology, data and insight that have measurable impacts on campaign effectiveness.”

Top-line findings include:

Impressions by Device

CTV has ascended to a key player in terms of impressions served by device, reaching 50% in Q2, up 31% from the previous year. The gain comes at the expense of impressions served to tablets and desktop; a reflection of how and where today’s viewers are consuming content.
But in the Auto vertical, the percent of impressions served to CTV decreased in Q2 by 29%, landing at 45%. While still strong, Autos are exhibiting a slower pace of CTV adoption than the broader group of advertisers as a whole. In that same period, mobile impressions nearly doubled and desktop impressions also rose.

In Premium We Trust–Most of the Time

In Q2 2019, premium publishers accounted for 83% of overall impressions vs. 17% for media aggregators. This speaks both to CTV’s ascending position in the digital landscape and, notably, the trust most advertisers place in premium.
DTC brands show a distinct preference for premium publishers. Impressions for DTC video ads in Q2 were served nearly entirely (99.8%) to premium sites. This rate is about 20% higher than the broader group of advertisers, which makes sense given that DTC companies are all about performance.
In contrast, Auto advertisers in Q2 made a shift toward media aggregators with a 51% quarter-over-quarter increase in impressions served to those sites. The percent of impressions served to premium publishers declined by 27% in that period.
This could signal an aggregator renaissance as CTV inventory grows: To date, CTV inventory has been almost exclusively sold by premium publishers directly to agencies and advertisers, however such deviations for the Auto sector might suggest that as CTV inventory increases, the law of supply and demand could cause greater availability of CTV via programmatic exchanges.

The Long and Short of It–Does Length Really Matter?

ER’s data shows that 30-second ads continued to dominate in Q2 despite a 7% drop from Q1 that put the category at 64%. In the same Q1 to Q2 period, 15-second ads saw a significant 20% rise in impressions. The year-over-year figures were notably different, however, with 15-second ads decreasing by 24% and 30-second spots increasing by 19%. 6-second ads saw a slight decline (7%) YoY and a nearly 60% rise for Q2.
In Q1 2019, the proportion of 15- and 30-second ads for the Auto sector was quite similar to the average of the larger group. 30-second spots account for 66% of impressions and 15-second ads represent 34%. In Q2, however, the proportion of 30-second ads for auto increased significantly to 83%, whereas the average for the broader group fell slightly to 64%.
For DTC, 95% of video ads were 30-seconds in Q2 2019, substantially higher than the 64% for the broader group. This is not surprising given the category’s investment in building deeper engagement directly with customers.
The takeaway here is that there is no “ideal” ad length and that quarter-by-quarter and year-over-year variations reflect advertisers’ deepening understanding that ad lengths need to be determined by purpose, vertical, audience, format and device rather than the trend du jour.

CDPs and Analytics Take CRM Lead Management Providers to New Heights

Sudipto Ghosh

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October 2, 2019

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CDPs and Analytics Take CRM Lead Management Providers to New Heights

Recently, Gartner released the Magic Quadrant 2019 for CRM Lead Management. The list includes the usual top-end Martech providers, Salesforce, Adobe’s Marketo, Acoustic (IBM) and the low-code champion in this segment, bpm’online. As a global business software provider for Process Automation and CRM, bpm’online has carved a unique space for itself in the CRM Lead Management category this year. bpm’online is a MarTech RADAR Company 2019.

SalesTech Star Primer: What Is Lead Generation?

bpm’online was also a leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Sales force Automation 2019 released in July 2019.

A major push into this CRM category come from fast-paced adoption and delivery of AI-based applications, in addition to seamless integration with Customer Data Platforms (CDPs), Marketing Analytics, and Account-Based Everything platforms. Gartner’s report evaluates 15 vendors, defining CRM lead management as “the process of capturing leads, tracking their activities and behavior, qualifying them, giving them constant attention to make them sales-ready, and then passing them on to the sales team.”

Gartner highlighted the role of AI as specified by both vendors and clients that are looking after AI technologies to facilitate lead management processes. While broadly used, lead management use cases for AI are becoming available in many applications, such as for lead scoring.

Other players listed in the various quadrants include consistent MarTech Series contributors such as HubSpot, Pegasystems, Zoho, SugarCRM (Salesfusion), X2Engine, Impartner, and SAP.

MarTech RADAR 2019: Top 250 B2B Technology Companies You Should Follow

We spoke to Katherine Kostereva, CEO and Managing Partner at bpm’online at the time of this announcement. Katherine stated —

“AI and ML have already moved from the realms of emerging tech to must-adopt technology and are becoming a critical success aspect for the customer experience and engagement. According to the recent Gartner report, the number of enterprises implementing artificial intelligence grew 270 percent in the past four years and tripled in the past year with an estimated 37 percent of firms now implementing AI in some form.”

Bpm’online marketing is a marketing automation software which helps organizations orchestrate customer journeys and accelerate lead-to-revenue. The product comes with best practice processes for efficient lead management – from demand generation to lead nurturing, to lead scoring, to final hand-off to sales. Its primary task is ensuring companies focus on qualified and sales-ready leads only. Bpm’online marketing can be both used separately or as a part of bpm’online CRM suite – coupled with bpm’online sales and bpm’online service solutions, built on one low-code process management platform. Bpm’online CRM allows for streamlining engagements across the entire customer journey.

Katherine added, “In the fast-paced business environment, marketing professionals expect software to make lead management process easy, though highly efficient. Bpm’online equips businesses with powerful tools, capable of amplifying their marketing efforts and ensuring top-notch customer engagement. This year, we were positioned as a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for CRM Lead Management, and we believe this recognition is a result of our consistent focus on helping companies accelerate.”

We probed how bpm’online continues to excel with their low-code applications for Martech and Salestech ecosystems. Katherine explained, “Business requires automation to be delivered in a fast and efficient manner. While IT has a huge backlog and limited capacity to deliver on all requests various departments, including what Marketing and Sales, have.”

“One of the solutions to accelerate modernization and transformation for marketing and sales is utilizing low-code / no-code technologies, which enable the staff to deliver new capabilities and automation much faster and easier. Leveraging low-code technology sales representatives and marketers can build some automation on their own. Such tools enable even less tech-savvy employees to make required configuration, build processes, interfaces, dashboards with no specific development skills,” said CEO of Sales force Automation provider.

Katherine’s recent achievements include being named as one of Top 50 SaaS CEOs in 2018, and 2019. In addition, she was been named one of the top women entrepreneurs in cloud computing, ranked among the top 3 CEOs in Boston, MA, recognized as one of the most influential women in BPM industry, and listed as one of the 5 coolest Business Process Management CEO’s of 2018 by Solutions Review.

Splunk Closes Acquisition Of Cloud Monitoring Leader SignalFx

STS News Desk

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October 2, 2019

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Splunk Closes Acquisition Of Cloud Monitoring Leader SignalFx

Splunk and SignalFx Combine Forces to Usher In New Era of APM; Joint Offering Helps Customers Monitor and Observe Data at Any Stage of their Cloud Journey

Splunk Inc. , provider of the Data-to-Everything Platform, announced that it has completed the acquisition of SignalFx, a SaaS leader in real-time monitoring and metrics for cloud infrastructure, microservices and applications. Splunk is already a leader in ITOM and an AIOps pioneer and, with the addition of SignalFx, is now a leader in observability and APM for organizations at every stage of their cloud journey, from cloud-native apps to homegrown on-premises applications. For more information, visit the SignalFx website for a free trial of SignalFx.

The aggregate purchase price for the transaction was approximately $1.05 billion, excluding adjustments, paid approximately 60% in cash and 40% in Splunk common stock.

“We live in a cloud-first world, where developers must have the ability to monitor and observe cloud-native infrastructure and applications in real-time, whether via logs, metrics or tracing. The power of Splunk and SignalFx allows our customers to monitor any relevant data at massive scale,” said Doug Merritt, President and CEO, Splunk. “I’m thrilled to welcome SignalFx to the Splunk team, and can’t wait to show our customers how our data platform can help them turn data into doing.”

“Atlassian uses SignalFx’s technology for cloud monitoring,” said Stephen Deasy, Atlassian’s Head of Engineering. “SignalFx helps us improve customer experience and keeps our business humming by monitoring our cloud infrastructure, microservices and applications.”

With Splunk, the combined technologies will give customers one platform that can monitor the entire enterprise application lifecycle. The predictability and versatility of Splunk’s Data-to-Everything pricing programs will also provide SignalFx’s customers with exceptional value and best-in-class, next generation solutions when compared to legacy APM solutions.

SignalFx’s cloud-delivered solutions have a highly differentiated set of features including real-time streaming analytics, such as the NoSample™ architecture for distributed tracing. The combination of Splunk and SignalFx will give IT departments a data platform that allows them to monitor and observe data in real-time, no matter the infrastructure or scale – in order to cut costs, boost revenue and improve the customer experience.

Gartner Highlights the Transformational Impact of Blockchain For Lead Generation In Sales

STS News Desk

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October 2, 2019

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Gartner Highlights the Transformational Impact of Blockchain For Lead Generation In Sales

The 2019 Hype Cycle for CRM Sales Technology Provides Insights on Prioritizing Sales Technology Investments

Blockchain for lead generation has reached the Innovation Trigger* in Gartner’s 2019 Hype Cycle for CRM Sales Technology. According to Gartner, Inc., the technology offers sales organizations the ability to provide users with the most current and highest-quality leads via the exchange of personal and/or business information based on crowdsourcing data collection methods. In addition, blockchain allows for monetizing data for revenue-generating purposes, while also protecting privacy.

“This is the first time blockchain is entering into the sales world and it has the potential to have a transformational impact on how sales organizations typically source leads and contact information,” said Adnan Zijadic, Senior Principal Analyst at Gartner. “Rather than source from unreliable third-party databases, users can instead partake in a network sharing system supported by blockchain infrastructure to source leads and contacts that fits their organization, while selling leads that do not match their ideal customer profile to other companies that may be in the market for such a lead or customer.”

Blockchain for lead generation also provides sales organization with opportunities to lower costs allocated to data intelligence solutions and master data management solutions by removing the “middle man.”

“Despite all its potential benefits, it will take time for organizations to take notice of blockchain for lead generation due to its embryonic stage,” said Mr. Zijadic. “Sales leaders should seize the opportunity to learn more about blockchain’s potential use cases while preparing for an increase in the vendor landscape.”

Other notable technologies in this year’s Hype Cycle include:

Digital adoption solutions: Digital adoption solutions are a new category of technology used to improve the adoption of multiple tools across the organization. They enable new sellers to onboard more quickly and allow tenured sellers to focus more on selling than the execution of tasks, improving productivity for all.

Sales engagement platforms: Sales engagement platforms expand sales enablement capabilities by using information about buyer and seller engagement to deliver better sales results. One notable benefit is its ability to measure prospects’ levels of engagement based on how often they download content and interact with sales representatives. When this is combined with coaching capabilities, managers can measure how well their teams are adhering to sales process expectations.

Conversational engagement analytics for sales: Conversational engagement analytics for sales tools use proprietary artificial intelligence algorithms to analyze audio conversations in order to deliver insights into the quality of interactions with prospects and customers. The technology is relevant to organizations seeking solutions to improve the performance of B2B inside sales representatives where interactions occur primarily by telephone.

Oracle Buys CrowdTwist

STS News Desk

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October 2, 2019

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Extends Oracle CX with Leading Cloud-Native Omni-Channel Loyalty Solution

Oracle announced it signed an agreement to acquire CrowdTwist, the leading cloud-native customer loyalty solution to empower brands to offer personalized customer experiences. The solution offers over 100 out-of-the-box engagement paths, providing rapid time-to-value for marketers to develop a more complete view of the customer. Upon the close of the acquisition, the CrowdTwist team will join the Oracle Customer Experience (CX) Cloud organization.

In today’s omni-channel environment, customer retention is critical to every business and loyalty is the unifying component for a brand across all marketing initiatives. Yet, many loyalty products offer static, single-channel, spend-and-get programs loaded with services and customization, creating difficult to adapt programs which are costly to implement and maintain. CrowdTwist’s cloud loyalty solution offers adaptable programs tailored to the needs of the customer to offer discounts, points, check-ins or rewards.

Together, Oracle and CrowdTwist will enable organizations of all sizes to deliver personalized engagement and extend loyalty and reward programs to a brand’s most beneficial customer behaviors. The combination offers several benefits to customers:

Tightly couple loyalty programs with the orchestration of B2C brands and customers through existing integration with Oracle Responsys.
Heighten customer intelligence and the value of loyalty program data through future integration with Oracle CX Unity.
Utilize loyalty and retention data to optimize B2B marketing campaigns via expanded integrations with Oracle Eloqua.
Deliver comprehensive, end-to-end loyalty view at transaction and store levels by extending current integrations with Oracle’s leading industry-specific retail, hospitality and food & beverage applications.

“Oracle is taking a unique approach to the customer data platform space, enabling the application of intelligence across every customer touchpoint,” said Rob Tarkoff, Executive Vice President, Oracle. “CrowdTwist’s leading loyalty platform will significantly augment Oracle CX’s ability to help our customers build more meaningful relationships with their customers.”

“The combination with Oracle validates CrowdTwist’s world-class technology, employees and customers,” said Scott Matthews, CEO of CrowdTwist. “We could not have found a more compelling partner to advance our vision of customer loyalty at scale.”

Salesforce Forecasts Record $136 Billion In US Online Sales and $768 Billion Globally Despite Shortened Holiday Season

STS News Desk

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October 2, 2019

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Salesforce Forecasts Record $136 Billion In US Online Sales and $768 Billion Globally Despite Shortened Holiday Season

Mobile to Dominate Digital Holiday Sales, Accounting for 70 Percent of Ecommerce Traffic and 52 Percent of Orders Placed

Salesforce, the global leader in CRM, released its new consumer insights and predictions for the 2019 holiday shopping season.

“With six fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, retailers will feel the pressure to create and fulfill demand before and after Cyber Week,” said Rob Garf, VP of Strategy and Insights for Retail and Consumer Goods, Salesforce. “That said, our data indicates a very strong digital season is ahead. Retailers that provide more personalized experiences, click and collect offerings, and of course, unbeatable prices, will be the ones that succeed this holiday season.”

Despite a shorter selling season, Salesforce forecasts sustained and solid US digital commerce revenue growth this holiday season at 13 percent year over year (YOY), with total sales reaching a record $136 billion in the United States and $768 billion globally. Salesforce’s top predictions for the 2019 holiday shopping season include:

A Shortened Season Will Push Retailers to Create Early Moments

With Thanksgiving falling later in the year, shoppers have six fewer days between Cyber Week (Nov. 25-Dec. 2) and Christmas to make their holiday purchases. This will result in revenue being more evenly distributed throughout Cyber Week. In fact, an increase in early bird shopping on the Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving will drive 19 percent YOY growth in global digital revenue. For Black Friday, digital revenue is forecast at $7.3 billion in the US and $39.6 billion globally. Cyber Monday will bring in an addition $8.2 billion in the US and $32.2 globally.

These early shoppers will explore new channels – such as voice-enabled devices, messaging platforms and social media – to gain inspiration and make purchases. Social will be a strong channel for early Cyber Week mobile buyers, with 10 percent of mobile purchases referred directly from social channels on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. This day represents the highest rate of mobile purchases referred from social channels all season, even higher than for peak shopping days like Black Friday.

Click and Collect Will Give the Short Season Longer Legs

As shoppers race to finish their orders before the Christmas shipping deadline of December 14, retailers will look to drive revenue growth in the shorter season with click and collect, also known as “buy online, pick up in-store.” With 83 percent of shoppers planning to shop in a physical store this holiday season, the convenience of click and collect extends the digital purchasing and shopping window well beyond the shipping deadline.

Retailers offering click and collect will drive 28 percent more revenue share across their industry during the 5 days before Christmas. This is in large part due to the fact that shoppers are 48 percent more active on sites that offer click and collect during this timeframe. An active shopper is defined as those who create baskets, start checkouts, engage in site search and other similarly desired shopping activities.

Gen Z Lives on the Edge this Holiday Season, Pushes Social Buying to Double Digits

Today, nearly one in ten digital purchases occur on emerging digital purchase points like social media, messaging platforms and voice-enabled devices. These channels are at the “edge” of brand and retailer properties. In fact, the preference for shopping at the edge is even more pronounced with Gen Zers, who are 3.5 times more likely than Baby Boomers to use these emerging purchase points.²

As Gen Z gains more purchasing power and influence than older generations, their preferences will bolster shopping on the edge. For the first time ever, social buying is expected to creep into the double digits this season. In fact, 37 percent of Gen Zers say Instagram will be their preferred source for holiday shopping inspiration. A rise in purchases on other alternative channels, like gaming platforms, is expected as well, with one in four millennials and Gen Zers expressing an interest in using gaming consoles to shop.

Cyber Monday Remains the Best Day for Digital Discounts

Despite plateauing free shipping rates, discounts on merchandise will continue to rise, and for good reason. In fact, 47 percent of shoppers go so far as saying they will only buy items on sale this holiday season.⁴ Shoppers also say sales or promo codes are the number one factor influencing their holiday purchases, with two-thirds paying more attention to companies’ emails during the holidays as they keep an eye out for attractive deals.⁵

This season, retailers will reward discount-hunting shoppers with even greater digital discounts on merchandise before Cyber Week begins – with discount rates growing 9 percent the week before Cyber Week. Cyber Monday will remain the best day of the year for scoring the biggest digital discounts, with an average discount rate of 29 percent.

Brainshark Named Best Training Solution in 2019 Golden Bridge Awards

Qubit Start for Peaks Includes Proven Tactics to Increase Retail Revenue Throughout the 2019 Holiday Season

Brainshark To Deliver Featured Presentation at Sales Enablement Society 2019 Annual Conference

New Research Shows Businesses Aren’t Proactive Enough When It Comes To Managing Online Reputation

At 50%, Connected TV Hits New High of Video AD Impressions Served by Extreme Reach

CDPs and Analytics Take CRM Lead Management Providers to New Heights

SalesTech Star Primer: What Is Lead Generation?

MarTech RADAR 2019: Top 250 B2B Technology Companies You Should Follow

Splunk Closes Acquisition Of Cloud Monitoring Leader SignalFx

Gartner Highlights the Transformational Impact of Blockchain For Lead Generation In Sales

Salesforce Forecasts Record $136 Billion In US Online Sales and $768 Billion Globally Despite Shortened Holiday Season

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Brainshark To Deliver Featured Presentation at Sales Enablement Society 2019 Annual Conference

New Research Shows Businesses Aren’t Proactive Enough When It Comes To Managing Online Reputation

At 50%, Connected TV Hits New High of Video AD Impressions Served by Extreme Reach

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Salesforce Forecasts Record $136 Billion In US Online Sales and $768 Billion Globally Despite Shortened Holiday Season

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