Last year, Black Friday online spending hit a record $7.4 billion. That was a jump of $1.2 billion over 2018’s spending, according to Adobe Analytics. As far as trends go, likely the jump will be even larger this year with the general shift toward eCommerce becoming even more pronounced in the wake of the pandemic.
Record sales online on Black Friday last year
Another shopping record set last Black Friday was for mobile shopping. That hit a record $2.9 billion for the day. Not only did 39% of orders come through mobile devices, but 61% of traffic came through them, as well, which points to the growing importance of optimizing eCommerce for the mobile customer.
Even more sales on Cyber Monday
On Cyber Monday in 2019, spending increased even more. Adobe Analytics put that record-breaking figure at $9.4 billion, which was 19.7% more than 2018.
Mobile accounted for a third of all Cyber Monday transactions, making up $3.1 billion in sales. That means smartphone shopping grew by 46% over 2018.
While the day originally got its name from the shopping people did after returning to work from the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, in fact, many waited until after prime time to make their purchases. Statistics showed that close to 30% of revenue on that day was generated by purchases made later than 10 PM, indicating people really shopped until they dropped.
The 2020 Trends
The trends toward more online holiday shopping that has been growing each year are going to ramp up for 2020. The combination of lingering concern about safety for in-person shopping and the comfort level with online ordering add up to a boon for eCommerce.
Two thirds of consumers have increased their online shopping due to COVID-19, and one-quarter of them do 90% of their shopping online. That translates into huge gains for eCommerce sellers, though they will need to prepare to capitalize on it.
How eCommerce should prepare for 2020 holiday sales
One of the keys to making the most of holiday shopping is not getting too focused on just single days. There is no reason to wait until Black Friday or Cyber Monday to offer incentives to buy, and there is no reason not to keep marketing for as long as you have time to get the orders delivered throughout December.
Nearly 40% of shoppers surveyed by Radial said they intend to begin their holiday shopping this year as early as October, while 30% said they would wait until the Black Friday through Cyber Monday shopping time.
In light of that, it makes sense that some sellers are not even waiting until after Halloween to ramp up holiday sales. That not only can increase sales now but even later in the shopping season as the data on purchase and browsing history can be used for personalized recommendations to the shoppers and their lookalikes.
What eCommerce retailers should be doing now
- Prepare messaging: Use Remarkety’s templates to get the ball rolling on your holiday promotions in October to catch the early shopper and get your other customers to at least start thinking about what they would order.
- Use SMS to speak to your smartphone users on their favorite medium.
- Use personalization for your returning customers, draw on the data you have to personalize your emails to increase the odds of conversion.
- Help your customers avoid disappointment by encouraging them to order early, particularly for popular items that may sell out by the end of November. Such warnings can go out in abandoned cart emails and SMS messages.
- Incentivize early orders with offers of free shipping for minimum orders placed by a certain date.
- Don’t alienate your procrastinators, though. Give them the option to pay for rush shipping if it is needed to guarantee on-time delivery or to deliver a gift card digitally if there is no time left for delivery.
The 2020 holiday shopping season will spark record-level revenue for those eCommerce businesses that prepare for it. Using Remarkety’s tools will help them make the most of the selling opportunities that are not limited to Black Friday and Cyber Monday but can start as early as October this year.
