Holiday season has raised record US$1.29 trillion for retailers, Salesforce data

Salesforce revealed its findings on 2025 year-end purchases (1 November to 31 December), reporting record online sales of US$ 1.29 trillion globally and US$ 294 billion in the United States, with strong influence from AI and agents. Even with the increase in average selling price, with annual sales growth (year-by-year comparison) reaching 7% globally and 4% in the US, proving that the consumer buying decision remained strong from the beginning of the period.

Consumers have demonstrated remarkable resilience throughout the holiday season, driving a global increase of 12% over the previous year in sales (9% in the US) over the past two weeks of December, outpacing the growth of the first half of the season. Meanwhile, AI and agents have sustained a large share of the holidays, accounting for 20% of all retail sales and generating US$ 262 billion in revenue through personalized recommendations and increased customer engagement.
 

Year-end shoppers 2025 embrace AI and agents

This year marked a turning point for the next wave of AI-driven searches, as the share of global and U. S. traffic coming from third-party AI search channels like ChatGPT and Perplexity doubled over last year. While these channels are still growing, they deliver an extremely motivated customer.

Retail private label agents also contributed to sales growth and increased efficiency for their teams, while companies deployed their own AI agents, such as Salesforce customers Pandora, SharkNinja e Funko, showed a 59% higher growth rate OD with an average increase of 6.2% in sales over 3.9%. Consumers have adopted this technology more than ever, using AI and retailers agents for customer service 126% more times during the Christmas bustle than in the previous two months.

With the peak of the season, AI agents became key to customer service available 24/7. December saw a 66% increase in the number of service conversations conducted by AI agents over November. In addition to answering questions, these agents also acted directly on behalf of customers, handling 142% more tasks than in the previous two months.

Insights on year-end shopping 2025

• Physical stores continue to be in constant presence: Almost one in five orders this season was placed via BOPIS (Buy Online, Pick Up In Store, or shop online and pick up at the store). However, as shoppers rushed to finish last-minute gifts, that rate rose to one in three in the last five days before Christmas.
  • BOPIS usage peaked on Monday, December 22, when 35% of all online orders were placed for pickup in the store.
• The return rate increases: More than US$ 181 billion in global online purchases made between November 1 and December 31 have already been returned.This represents 14% of all purchases and represents a 10% increase in returns over last year.
  • Items purchased in the store during the last four days before Christmas are most likely to be returned in January.
• Purchasing power trends: During the holiday season, the average selling price (ASP) increased 7% year-on-year both in the world and in the US. However, consumers did not let themselves be discouraged by the higher prices (ASP) order volumes this season have moderately increased by 3% globally and 1% in the US compared to last year.
• Consumers search long before buying: Although this holiday season has been marked by a resilient consumer, there has been more research before conversion. Online traffic has grown 13% globally and 12% in the US compared to last year's volumes, significantly outpacing last year's 1% and 2% growth rates, respectively.

“The 2025 holiday season marked a definitive shift into a new era of shopping for 262-billion-dollar’s.While consumers remained resilient in the face of higher prices, the real story was how retailers leaned on AI and agents to navigate the party rush. Agents not only generated US$ 262 billion in sales through high-intention discoveries; they became the operational heroes of season 142% dealing with an increase in tasks such as returns and shipping updates.It was not just a bigger holiday season than last year; it was a more efficient and smart one.” ^C.aila Schwartz, Director of Consumer Insights at Salesforce.

Salesforce 2025 holiday insights and forecasts methodology

Driven by Agentforce 360, Agentforce Commerce, Agentforce Marketing and Agentforce Service, Salesforce analyzed aggregate data to generate vacation insights from the activity of more than 1.5 billion global buyers in more than 89 countries, focusing on 18 key markets: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Asia Pacific (excluding Japan, Australia and New Zealand), Switzerland, Latin America (LAM), Middle East and Africa (MEA), Japan, the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, and other retailing countries.

The forecast data we present is from proprietary Salesforce surveys.The calculations we use mix first and third party data, as well as various market assumptions.