Deloitte vs NTT DATA

Consumers Distrust AI Agents for Holiday Shopping

A new Deloitte survey of 4,000 U.S. consumers reveals that only 16% trust AI agents to complete holiday purchases on their behalf, while 66% worry about how AI assistants use their data. Despite this, 37% feel more comfortable using AI agents than they did six months ago. Retailers are building the infrastructure to enable AI-driven shopping, but consumer hesitancy remains a significant barrier. Other pre-holiday surveys also show reluctance toward agentic shopping. The findings suggest that while the technology is advancing, widespread consumer adoption is not yet imminent.

• Only 16% of consumers trust AI agents to complete holiday purchases, per Deloitte survey.
• 66% of consumers worry about how AI assistants use their data.
• 37% of consumers are more comfortable using AI agents than six months ago.

CRM Recency Segmentation Drives Holiday Repeat Purchases

This article merges two topics: CRM segmentation for holiday repeat purchases and the growing challenge of holiday returns. For retailers, customer-friendly return policies increase fraud and profit loss. The NRF's 2025 Retail Return Report shows 15.8% of annual sales end in returns, nearly $850 billion in lost sales in 2025, with holiday return rates at 17% and online returns at 19.3%. Fraud accounts for 9% of holiday returns, and 75% of retailers report worsening trends. Hidden losses arise from lack of item-level tracking, leading to inventory inaccuracies and wasted labor. Meanwhile, a marketing guide recommends using recency ladders to segment customers into recent, active, drifting, and dormant groups, with always-on campaigns for recent customers and targeted email/paid media for lapsed ones. Deliverability is crucial for dormant groups, and personalized messaging is emphasized. Sensormatic Solutions sponsors embedded RFID tags for real-time inventory tracking and fraud detection, improving the returns process. Meta's Conversions API is highlighted for targeting high-value users.

• Deloitte forecasts holiday sales growth of 4.0% to 4.8% in 2026, with online sales rising 7.5% to 8.4%.
• RFM (recency, frequency, monetary value) is used to segment customers into four levels, with recent customers (last nine months) included in campaigns throughout the year.
• Dormant customers should receive no more than three emails, and paid media campaigns should run from mid-November through Cyber Monday week.

Deloitte: 28% of Holiday Budgets Spent by End of October

Retailers are navigating a value-driven holiday season, with forecasts varying from Deloitte and NRF predicting 4% and 4.2% sales growth to more cautious projections from Circana and Simon-Kucher. Target is enhancing its strategy with over 8,000 new gifts (most under $20), an AI assistant, and daily deals from Nov. 1. Kohl's is responding with clear pricing, gift bundles, buy-now-pay-later via Klarna, and same-day delivery partnerships. Despite a Q2 net sales decline, Kohl's raised its full-year outlook. Meanwhile, logistics and retail hiring is intensifying, with UPS and Amazon adding 100,000 and 300,000 workers respectively, and NRF forecasting holiday sales to surpass $1 trillion for the first time. Gen Z accounts for 40% of retail applicants, prompting streamlined hiring processes. The overall strategy reflects cautious optimism amid price-sensitive consumer behavior.

• Forecasts vary: Deloitte and NRF predict growth of 4% and 4.2%, while Circana expects -1% to +2.5% and Simon-Kucher projects -5.5%, yet NRF forecasts holiday sales to surpass $1 trillion for the first time.
• 77% of consumers say inflation changed shopping behaviors; only 22% trust advertised discounts, and 38% are 'holiday value seekers' spending 12% more.
• Target offers over 8,000 new gifts (most under $20), launches AI 'Ask Target', and plans daily deals from Nov. 1 with early Black Friday promotions Nov. 5-7.

Investor Presentation Released: NTT DATA Group Corporation

AI parsed presentation narrative: NTT DATA Group demonstrated strong revenue growth driven by large-scale project wins in Japan and continued expansion across overseas business units. Although reported operating profit decreased year-on-year due to the non-recurrence of a ¥129.5 billion data center transfer gain recorded in FY2025, underlying operational performance grew steadily while the company accelerates AI-driven IT operations, enterprise cybersecurity offerings, and green data center initiatives. Strategic pillars: AI-Driven IT Automation & Operational Resilience, Global Cybersecurity Service Scaling.