Black Friday to Cyber Monday Conversation Volume Spikes to Never-Before-Seen Levels as Consumers Ditch in-Store Experiences for AI-Powered Messaging

LivePerson’s peak conversation volume during Cyber Weekend 2020 triples compared to Cyber Weekend 2019

LivePerson, Inc., a global leader in conversational AI, announced record-high conversation volumes for the holiday shopping season. The all-time highs cap off a year of incredible growth, driven by structural changes in consumer preferences and accelerated by the COVID pandemic.

The skyrocketing growth in conversation volume — defined as the number of full interactions between a consumer and a brand on LivePerson’s Conversational Cloud — shows consumers are making a permanent shift: widely adopting conversational commerce and flocking to brands they can message on channels such as SMS, WhatsApp, Apple Business Chat, Facebook Messenger, Google RCS, LINE, WeChat, and brand websites and apps. By layering automation and conversational AI into these channels, brands exponentially increase their reach and provide faster, more convenient experiences available 24/7 for inquiries and purchases.

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While in-store traffic on Black Friday fell by 52% in 2020 compared with 2019, conversational experiences exploded on the Conversational Cloud:

• Peak conversation volume during the 2020 Black Friday to Cyber Monday period grew 200% year over year.
• Total conversation volume on Cyber Monday 2020 grew 186% year over year.
• Compared to a typical week before the pandemic began, total Cyber Monday 2020 conversation volume was up 297%.
• The surge continued even through the Tuesday after Cyber Weekend — with Tuesday’s total conversation volume exceeding Black Friday by 11% — reinforcing the staying power of messaging as consumers’ preferred channel.

Many of the world’s largest brands planned ahead for the influx of conversational commerce, or “c-commerce,” consumers on Cyber Weekend and saw dramatic increases in conversation volume on the Conversational Cloud compared to their average volumes: 

• One of the world’s biggest beauty brands saw conversation volume jump over 150% during Cyber Weekend, opening three new sub-brands on Apple Business Chat ahead of the holidays to serve their customers in a virtual setting.
• One of the world’s biggest banks was up 50% over Cyber Weekend as consumers used their cards for online purchases.
• One of the world’s largest telcos was up 40% after promoting messaging channels for deals on phones and service plans, with traffic driven by customers purchasing and activating new devices.
• One of the world’s largest insurance companies is set to turn off telephones for their agents in the coming days, consolidating all communication on LivePerson’s Conversational Cloud.

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“While we expected a strong holiday surge to close out a year of record-high conversation volume, the Cyber Weekend spikes were like nothing we’ve ever seen,” said Robert LoCascio, founder and CEO of LivePerson. “Conversational commerce has become consumers’ preferred way to do business because it creates lasting, engaging connections compared to e-commerce — letting them take care of all their questions, purchases, and customer care concerns in a single messaging thread — and remains much safer and more convenient than in-store experiences.”

The dramatic increases in conversation volume prove the findings of LivePerson’s 2020 Consumer Preferences for Conversational Commerce report, a survey of over 5,000 adults in six countries, which found that:

• The overwhelming majority of consumers of all ages report a strong desire to message with brands.
• For the first time, older consumers are showing the same level of interest in messaging with brands as younger demographics.
• Vast majorities of consumers now report they’d be more likely to do business with — and spend more with — brands that allow them to message rather than call.

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