{"id":73433,"date":"2026-01-08T05:52:35","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T13:52:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/?p=73433"},"modified":"2026-01-09T12:13:52","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T12:13:52","slug":"2025-holiday-shopping-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/uk\/news\/stories\/2025-holiday-shopping-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Holiday Season Rakes in Record $1.29T for Retailers, Salesforce Data Shows"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

AI and agents account for $262 billion of 2025 holiday spend<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

UK and global markets see strong sales growth amid rising prices<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Salesforce unveiled its 2025 holiday shopping findings (Nov. 1 – Dec 31), reporting record-breaking online sales of $1.29 trillion globally and \u00a328 billion ($38 billion) in the UK, with strong influence from AI and agents. Amid higher average selling prices, year-over-year (YOY) sales growth hit 7% globally and 5.5% in the UK, proving consumer buying remained strong from the start to finish of holiday shopping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UK shoppers showed remarkable resilience throughout the holiday season, even driving a 12% YOY global increase in sales in the last two weeks of December, outpacing growth in the first half of the season. All the while, AI and agents powered a massive portion of the holidays, driving 20% of all retail sales and fueling $262 billion in revenue through personalized recommendations and deeper customer engagement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2025 holiday shoppers embrace AI and agents<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This year marked a turning point for the next wave of AI-powered search as the share of global traffic from third-party AI search channels like ChatGPT and Perplexity doubled compared to last year. While these channels are still growing, they deliver an exceptionally high-intent shopper. In fact, shoppers referred to retailer websites from AI-powered search channels converted nine times more often than those coming through social media referrals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Retailers\u2019 own branded agents also contributed to sales growth \u2013 while boosting their teams\u2019 efficiency. Companies that deployed their own AI agents, like Salesforce customers Pandora<\/a>, SharkNinja<\/a>, and Funko<\/a>, saw a 59% higher growth rate \u2014 averaging a 6.2% YoY sales increase versus 3.9%. Shoppers embraced this technology more than ever, using retailers\u2019 AI and agents for customer service 126% more during the holiday rush than in the two months prior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the season peaked, AI agents became key to always-on customer service. December saw a 66% jump in the number of agentic AI-powered service conversations over November, while interactions during the week of Christmas and Boxing Day grew 12% YoY. Beyond answering their questions, these agents also took direct action on behalf of customers, handling 142% more tasks than they had in the prior two months. These tasks include updating delivery addresses and initiating returns, which are manual, resource-intensive tasks for human reps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n