Cyber Monday sales hit an all-time high, amounting to a record $12.6 Billion in consumer spending, a 3% year-over-year increase. Salesforce (CRM) Vice President and General Manager of Retail Rob Garf credits the “resilient shopper” — who was strategic about sales and didn’t “bite” on early holiday shopping promotions — for this feat.

Garf tells Yahoo Finance that as holiday shopping continues, retailers appear to be positive and expect “really good footing” with inventory levels and profit forecasts through the end of the holiday season.

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Video Transcript

- Cyber Monday sales hitting a record $12.6 billion in the US, rising 3% year-over-year. That's according to Salesforce. And AI, as well as the buy now, pay later option, played a big role in yesterday's sales and the weekend sales, for that matter. Here to help us break down the data is Salesforce Vice President and General Manager of Retail, Rob Garf.

Rob, thanks for being here. What sort of, you know-- we've been talking a lot about the volume of sales that were done here. What are some of the trends that you're seeing? What are some of the things that maybe changed from year to year or accelerated that you can talk to us about?

ROB GARF: Yeah, absolutely. As you mentioned, we saw a really healthy 3% year-over-year growth on Cyber Monday. And that's from the resilient shopper. They are certainly doing their research. They are being patient. They are being diligent. And they didn't bite on early holiday sales. They waited until they saw, you know, discount rates hovering around 30% over the holiday weekend. And they actually stepped up. And they purchased.

The most interesting point about all of this growth, it's from increased demand. You know, for the last five quarters, the growth has been almost all from increased prices. So the shopper is looking for deals. They're being very surgical. And they came out to buy this holiday week.

- And Rob, let's also look ahead here. Listen, it sounds like it's been a relatively strong 1o-day period. Do you see it continuing, Rob?

ROB GARF: We do see it continuing, though. We're not changing our forecast for the entire season. So you know, sales got pulled in back to the peak days of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. And they were taking market shares from the bookends earlier in the holiday season and the late stage of the holiday season.

But every retailer I'm talking to is really positive. Nobody had unrealistic expectations for growth this holiday online. So they're really pleased with what they've seen. They're looking forward to coming out of this holiday season with really good footing around profitability and inventory levels. And they're looking for next fiscal year to get back to growth mode.