The Salesforce Consumer Goods Report 2025 paints a stark picture of the retail landscape. This year is proving to be one of the most difficult periods in decades for global consumer goods companies, with Canadian operators facing particularly sharp pressures. Tariffs, inflation, labour costs, and fragile consumer confidence are converging in ways that squeeze both revenues and margins.
Michelle Grant, Director of Industry Insights at Salesforce, described the situation candidly. “The pressure of tariffs and of their inflationary costs have made it very difficult for consumer goods companies,” she said in an interview. “Consumers are pushing back on pricing, focusing spending only on essentials, and often trading down.”
The reality is clear: Canadians are spending cautiously, and brands are being forced to rethink operations amid rising costs and changing behaviour.
Profitability Under Siege
More than half of global consumer goods leaders told Salesforce that profitable growth will be harder to achieve in 2025. In Canada, the challenge is compounded by macroeconomic pressures.
“Raw material costs are up dramatically,” Grant explained. “Chocolate prices are at all-time highs because of supply issues, coffee costs are higher due to tariffs, and labour costs globally are rising.” Add to this increased freight fees and fuel costs, and companies are experiencing pressure on every major input.
Grant emphasized that Canadian firms are uniquely exposed. With unemployment creeping up, consumers are more cautious. At the same time, the removal of the de minimis exemption and new tariffs have made selling into the United States more costly. “It is really a tough climate to operate in as a Canadian consumer goods company,” she said.
The AI Frontier
Yet amid the turbulence, the report highlights a striking opportunity: the rise of autonomous artificial intelligence agents. Nearly nine in 10 consumer goods executives expect these tools to be essential within two years.
Grant explained the potential. “AI agents are able to ingest structured and unstructured data to perform tasks that humans simply can’t at scale,” she said. “One of the most valuable use cases is optimizing trade promotions.
Thirty percent of a consumer goods company’s revenue goes to trade promotions, but 40% of that spend does not deliver a positive return on investment. Even small improvements in ROI can have an enormous impact on the bottom line.”
This shift signals a profound change for how companies plan promotions, pricing, and consumer engagement. Instead of relying on broad-based discounts, AI-driven systems can analyze real-time signals and personalize offers with unprecedented precision.
Trade Promotions and Personalization
Trade promotion management has long been central to the consumer goods sector. But Salesforce’s research shows diminishing returns. According to the report, only 60% of current trade promotion spend yields a positive ROI.
“Personalized offers using AI and data were ranked the most effective tactic,” Grant said. “If I’m a volume buyer of chocolate, an AI system might offer me a ‘buy three, get one free’ promotion, while someone less committed to chocolate gets a smaller incentive. That level of personalization is still in its early stages, but it represents the most effective path forward.”
Direct-to-consumer exclusive promotions and traditional price reductions also remain important, but the clear trend is towards tailored offers based on individual consumer data.
The Tariff Challenge and AI’s Role
External policy shifts are adding volatility. Fully 98% of leaders surveyed cited exposure to tariffs and economic policy as a threat to their businesses.
Grant noted that AI can help companies adapt. “Tariffs can change very quickly,” she said. “Agent AI allows companies to analyze decades of data, surface exposure risks, and even recommend new vendors or product formulations in response.”
For Canadian consumer goods companies, often caught between U.S. trade policies and domestic market constraints, AI could provide the agility needed to respond to sudden shocks.
Towards an AI-First Company
Looking ahead to 2027, Salesforce envisions a typical consumer goods company as one where AI workflows are integrated into nearly every function.
“We’re still in the crawl, walk, run phase,” Grant said. “Companies are piloting use cases, then scaling them. But at the board level, leaders need to be thinking about how AI transforms the entire company.”
Generative AI, for example, is reshaping product innovation. By analyzing detailed consumer data, companies can mock up new products, test them with synthetic customers, and launch AI-generated marketing campaigns — all before producing a prototype.
“Every division of a company will be enhanced by AI workflows,” Grant predicted. “From supply chain visibility to staffing algorithms for a café anticipating a pumpkin spice latte surge, the technology will be embedded everywhere.”
The report is also a showcase of Salesforce’s role in reshaping how consumer goods companies operate. Grant pointed to the company’s Agentforce technology as an example. “Agentforce is embedded across our platforms, from Slack to Consumer Goods Cloud to Marketing Cloud,” she said. “We’re building tools that allow companies to be agent-led, not just in one portion of the business but throughout their entire front office.”
In practice, this means marketers can generate emails, images, and customer segments instantly, then fine-tune the results before launch. The result is more targeted, efficient campaigns with less manual effort.
Digital Marketing Gains Momentum
The Salesforce Consumer Goods Report 2025 also highlights a shift in marketing priorities. Companies that once relied heavily on television and out-of-home advertising are now moving decisively into digital.
“The top three channels gaining investment are retail media networks, influencer marketing, and digital ads like display and search,” Grant explained. Unilever, for example, has committed to directing half of its social media spend towards influencers, aiming to have “an influencer in every zip code” where its products are sold.
For Canadian companies, this shift underscores the need to compete for digital attention in crowded online spaces, where AI-driven personalization is increasingly the norm.
The Salesforce Consumer Goods Report 2025 paints a picture of an industry under immense pressure, but also on the cusp of transformation. Canadian companies in particular face daunting headwinds from tariffs, rising costs, and weaker consumer demand. Yet at the same time, advancements in AI promise to reshape trade promotions, marketing, supply chains, and product innovation.
Grant captured the balance of caution and optimism: “Maybe two years is too soon, but within five years, every role and division will have agent AI workflows built into it.”
