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Are you done your holiday shopping yet? Or have you barely started? No matter which camp you fall into, hopefully you were able to take advantage of some Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales last week. And with six fewer days between Cyber Monday and Christmas this year, many retailers were offering deals even earlier in November to help drive dales and make up for potential revenue loss. Luckily for them, this holiday shopping season is gearing up to be record-breaking. According to eMarketer, total U.S. retail sales will top 1 trillion this year, making it the first-ever trillion-dollar holiday season.
Cyber Monday alone was breaking records as the largest online shopping day in the U.S. Adobe Analytics reported that Cyber Monday sales would hit $9.2 billion, resulting in a 16.9% YOY increase. According to them, the “golden hours of retail” took place between 10pm and 2am EST and were on pace to drive 30% of Cyber Monday revenue at $2.8 billion, with many shoppers rushing to take advantage of the deals before they expired. Adobe also reported that during the peak hour of 11pm-12am EST, consumers were spending on average $11 million every minute!
Much of this Cyber Monday shopping was taking place on smartphones as consumers continue to become more comfortable making purchases on their mobile devices. Adobe reported that online sales via smartphones accounted for 33% of Cyber Monday sales at $3.0 billion (a 46% YOY increase) – a new record.
And you can’t talk about Cyber Monday without mentioning Amazon. CNN Business reported that this year’s Cyber Monday was Amazon’s biggest shopping day in the company's history, with shoppers ordering "hundreds of millions" of products between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday. Amazon customers bought more items around the world on Cyber Monday this year than on any other day in the company’s two-plus decades of existence. That’s a lot of boxes sitting on people’s front porches.
Digital media vendors saw success as well, leveraging all of this time being spent online. LiveIntent, which reaches 250 million verified people monthly across their email and digital platforms, via its 2,500 brand and publisher partners, reported that total Black Friday and Cyber Monday campaign conversions increased 27% YOY. Smartphones saw higher numbers of clicks and conversions YOY, whereas tablets saw increases in CTR and conversion rate.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday will continue to be important for any retailer as consumers kick off their holiday shopping. Email marketing, online retargeting and social media have shown to be important tactics for these types of holiday campaigns, but like all things, media mix will evolve as consumers continue to shift their buying behaviors around the holiday season.