Customer communication platform Sinch has released its predictions for the 2024 Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping season, pointing to personalisation, conversational commerce, and secure communication technologies as key trends.

The predictions are based on Sinch’s 2024 Consumer BF/CM Survey, conducted across the US, UK, Spain, France, Germany, Brazil, and Australia.

In 2023, Sinch processed over 4 billion messages globally during Cyber Week, including more than 800 million SMS messages on Black Friday, marking a 22.65% increase in activity compared to 2022. According to Sinch’s 2024 Consumer BF/CM Survey, 77.9% of consumers prefer to receive promotions through two or more channels. 61.3% of shoppers expect to receive holiday promotions via email, while 44.9% favour at least one mobile messaging channel.

Over half of the consumers (51.2%) stated they are likely to engage with interactive campaigns delivered via messaging apps. Nearly 80% of consumers want personalised recommendations during the holiday season. 51.2% of respondents said they would engage with interactive holiday campaigns sent directly to their messaging application. Nearly 50% of consumers expect to receive an order confirmation immediately after making a purchase. A whopping 94.4% of consumers indicated that transactional messages—such as order confirmations—are somewhat or very important.

More than half of the shoppers (56.6%) want to use chatbots to track order status, while 45.8% want to learn more about products before making a purchase, and 43.2% value accessing customer service outside business hours.

“Retailers need to be prepared for the evolving expectations of today’s digitally savvy shoppers,” said SVP of Messaging Product at Sinch, Virginie Debris. “Our predictions for 2024 emphasize the growing importance of omnichannel, personalized, and secure communications in driving customer engagement and sales. Sinch is dedicated to providing the cutting-edge tools businesses need to excel in this competitive landscape.”