FOX5’s LIKE IT OR NOT – Cyber Monday Strategy

Black Friday is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, annual sales days for brick-and-mortar stores across the country. Similarly, Cyber Monday is the leading sales day for e-commerce. Between both days, businesses have a lot of potential sales on the horizon. However, competition is stiff, and businesses need to stand out in order to make an impact and sell more than their competitors who are likewise optimizing for the holiday.

Overall Results: Black Friday and Cyber Monday

  • Based on Black Friday weekend results, which NRF counts as the five days from Thanksgiving Thursday through Cyber Monday, the trade organization reiterated its holiday season forecast of 4.3-4.8% year over year sales, which are strong comps on top of an already strong season.
  • Thanksgiving Day brought in $3.7 billion in online sales, a growth of 28% year over year. Adobe predicted a 16.5% increase YoY.
  • Black Friday brought in $6.2 billion in online sales, a growth of 23.6% year over year.
  • As of 7 p.m. ET on Monday, Adobe was projecting $7.9 billion in Cyber Monday online sales, a 19.7% increase year over year. This was more than Adobe initially predicted: $7.7 billion for 17.6% YoY growth. Adobe predicted that Cyber Monday would be the fastest growing online shopping day of the year, but reported that Saturday and Sunday combined grew 25% YoY, faster than both Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.
  • Over 165 million people shopped over the weekend, slightly over the number predicted. RetailMeNot predicted that 78% of shoppers planned to shop over the weekend, and Swagbucks predicted 85%, significantly higher than NRF’s 67% of actual shoppers.
  • Average spending was down approximately $20 YoY, but total spending was up.
  • Consumers aged 35-44 spent an average of $413 over the weekend, which was about $100 more than the total average per consumer. Compare that with Deloitte’s prediction that consumers will spend $1,536 each over the entirety of the holiday season. And AT Kearney’s prediction that under-35s would spend the most between Black Friday and Cyber Monday
  • Almost half (48%) of consumers did less than 25% of their gift shopping over Thanksgiving weekend, and overall consumers have more than half of their planned shopping left to do.
  • Salesforce predicted that 40% of holiday shopping would happen during Cyber Week, and while they don’t yet have the denominator (all holiday shopping), Rob Garf, Salesforce VP of Industry Strategy and Insights confirmed that the totals the company saw over Cyber Week are on track to hit that prediction.

SOURCE: https://www.forbes.com/sites/nikkibaird/2018/11/28/every-result-you-need-to-know-about-black-friday-cyber-monday-and-holiday-2018-so-far/#1a2e01f94eb5