The Grinch Bot is Stealing Christmas!

“Cloudflare detected nearly 1.5 trillion bot requests on Black Friday.
43.8% of Internet traffic comes from these bots.
During the year, Cloudflare observed over 300 billion bots try to “add to cart.”
71% of login traffic comes from bots”

Cyber Monday hits sales high for 2021, with one in three shoppers buying online

“People looking to scoop up Cyber Monday deals spent 1.4% less this year than last, according to the Adobe Digital Economy Index, with online sales in the US on Monday totaling $10.7 billion. Salesforce had a different result for Cyber Monday, saying sales rose 3% from 2020 to $12.3 billion this year.
Salesforce said spending was up 4% from last year for the full week leading up to Cyber Monday, hitting $61 billion.
Amazon, the country’s largest online retailer, didn’t provide any sales figures, but said it was the company’s ‘biggest kickoff to the holiday shopping season ever.’”

“Eighty-five percent of retailers expect online sales to increase during the 2021 holiday shopping season, continuing an upward trend from the pandemic lockdowns of 2020, according to the 2021 eCommerce Outlook Report from Anodot and Researchscape.
To help them stay competitive, retailers are turning to artificial intelligence, with 81% of the merchants in the survey saying they planned to increase their AI budgets this year.”

Read the full report by Anodot and Researchscape.

“In recent years, seasonal shopping has started earlier and earlier, with around 40% of consumers beginning to cross items off their holiday lists before Halloween.
When it comes to marketing, digital is likely going to be your most important channel for the holiday shopping season. But don’t create your messaging in a vacuum.
‘Customers want cross-channel shopping experiences that are seamless across online, offline, and partner interactions—which rely on the essential integration of associated network systems among all three environments,’
There is an abundance of data you can use to calibrate your operations during the holiday season. With the help of AI, you can draw useful, actionable insights from that data much quicker than you’d be able to with traditional business intelligence techniques.”

“Amazon sellers had record-breaking $4.8 billion in worldwide sales Black Friday through Cyber Monday, a 60 percent increase over 2019 sales for the same period.
Sales on Cyber Monday increased 15.1 percent year over year, based on analysis from 80 of the leading 100 eCommerce merchants in the U.S., according to Adobe. The figures fell short of Adobe’s forecast of $12.7 billion.
Adobe adjusted its online sales forecast slightly downward to $184 billion for the entire holiday season, a 30 percent hike over 2019. Original 2020 forecasts were $189 billion.
Cyber Monday orders for curbside pickup were up 30 percent from 2019, and 37 percent of digital sales were made on mobile devices, according to Adobe’s data.”