Tag Archive for: Black Friday

Despite the increasing pressure many shoppers are feeling from inflation, the latest data from this year’s Black Friday shopping shows that consumers are still taking the shopping event seriously.

Brick-and-mortar store visits grew by an estimated 2.9% compared to 2021, according to a report from Sensormatic Solutions. Meanwhile, Adobe Analytics found that online sales rose by 2.3% to $9.12 billion.

This increase in in-person shopping likely reflects the easing of Covid-19 restrictions across the country and the increasing comfort shoppers are showing about going to brick-and-mortar locations. Stats from Thanksgiving Day itself back this up, with a whopping 19.7% increase compared to 2021. 

Bloomberg had similar findings, with data showing that increased mall traffic rise by approximately 1.2%, and traffic to other types of shopping locations (such as strip centers or standalone stores) climbed 4.7% compared to the past year. 

Notable Stats from Shopify

Shopify also released its data from this year’s Black Friday Shopping, accounting for a record-setting $3.6 billion across the platform from the start of Black Friday in New Zealand to the end of Black Friday in California. 

At the height of the day’s sales, Shopify saw $3.5 million per minute.

The report also included some other interesting highlights:

  • Top selling countries and cities where shoppers made purchases from: United States, United Kingdom and Canada, with the top-selling cities on Black Friday including London, New York, and Los Angeles
  • Top product categories: Apparel & accessories, followed by health & beauty, and home & garden, with trending products including Snocks GmbH (Boxershorts), rhode (peptide glazing fluid), and Brooklinen (Luxe Core Sheet Set)**
  • Average cart price: $102.31 USD or $105.10 USD on a constant currency basis  
  • 15%: Cross-border orders worldwide on Black Friday as a percentage of total orders 
  • 27%: Growth in POS sales made by Shopify merchants globally over last year’s Black Friday

What We Can Learn From This

Despite challenges, Black Friday and the surrounding weekend remain major events for consumers and retailers. With the end of Covid restrictions, consumers use a renewed sense of flexibility to find the best deals online and in-store.

For retailers, it is more important than ever to ensure your customers can easily find you and compare your prices and products. The online shopping space is increasingly crowded and it is up to you to stand out with great offers, well-crafted sales messages, top-level service, and high-quality products.

The Thanksgiving shopping weekend has officially become the biggest social media event of the year, garnering more discussion on Facebook and Instagram than even the most recent Super Bowl.

According to an email from Facebook to Social Pro Daily, more than 130 million people talked about Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday this year.

Facebook alone generated more than 226 million interactions from 90 million people about the Thanksgiving shopping weekend, while 52 million talked about the deals and shopping experience on Instagram.

Surprisingly, Black Friday and Cyber Monday weren’t the biggest days of the weekend on social media. Despite being considered the smaller event of the holiday, mentions of Small Business Saturday actually surpassed mentions of Cyber Monday. The day devoted to local small businesses also created two of the top hashtags on Instagram with “ShopSmall and #ShopLocal.

Other notable stats from the weekend according to Facebook:

  • There were more than 450 million views over the weekend on Facebook of videos related to Black Friday and similar topics.
  • Black Friday conversation on Facebook and Instagram was driven by women between 35 and 54.
  • Men between 18 and 34 were more likely to discuss Cyber Monday.
  • More than one-third of Instagram business profiles posted Instagram Stories during the holiday weekend.
  • The top five shopping-related hashtags on Facebook and Instagram over the weekend were: #BlackFriday, #CyberMonday, #SmallBusinessSaturday, #ShopSmall and #ShopLocal.
  • The three most engaged states on Facebook were Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee.

While Black Friday sales are in a slump, a new king of the holiday shopping season is rising. The results Cyber Monday are coming in and estimates suggest this year broke e-commerce sales records for the biggest day of online sales in US history.

According to Adobe, online sales hit over $3 billion dollars on Cyber Monday. Their report says 200 million visits to 4,500 retail websites generated $3.06 billion, rising 16 percent from last year.

Approximately 26 percent of those sales came from mobile devices, accounting for $799 million in sales. The majority of those sales ($575 million) came from Apple iOS devices. In comparison, Android devices drove just $219 million in mobile sales.

ChannelAdvisor and Custora have found similar results in their analysis of Cyber Monday sales.

ChannelAdvisor says Cyber Monday sales leaped 18 percent year over year on a same-store-sales basis. They found mobile devices accounted for 43 percent of traffic, however their results also found consumers are still relying on desktops to make the final purchase. Their analysis says 24 percent of sales came from smartphones.

Custora’s findings estimate e-commerce revenue climbed 16.2 percent from last year, with tablets and phones driving 26.9 percent of all Cyber Monday sales.

The notable increase in Cyber Monday sales may be due to bigger discounts than expected, with an average discount of 21.5 percent.

Another notable report from HookLogic says the average order value among advertisers on its platform hit $134 on Cyber Monday, just below the $137 AOV seen on Black Friday. Interestingly, carts had fewer items on Cyber Monday, which suggests consumers waited for the online sales to make their purchase.

In the past, most local businesses never thought they could compete with major companies.  The marketing budget needed to really make a similar impact was usually way out of their capabilities.  However, with Google’s latest updates, it’s looking like the smaller business has a much better chance of staying within the public’s eyes.

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