The holiday shopping season has officially gone off with a bang, with record-breaking revenue from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday.
Thanksgiving
With prices as low as Black Friday’s deals, Thanksgiving didn’t disappoint shoppers this year, generating $3.7 billion in revenue (up 28% from last year). Thursday was also the first day in 2018 to hit $1 billion in revenue from purchases made off smartphones.
Reports showed lighter foot-traffic in malls this Thanksgiving to Black Friday. Shoppers spent 8% more online this Thanksgiving compared to last year, proving that more people are heading to their computer or mobile device to make a purchase after their turkey dinner, rather than heading out to shop.
Black Friday
With $6.22 billion in online sales, Black Friday set a new high - up 23.6% from last year. Black Friday was the first day in history to hit $2 billion in mobile purchases. The same Adobe study found that 33.5% of online sales Friday were from mobile devices, compared to 29.1% in 2017.
Black Friday was the most popular day for in-store shopping with more than 67 million shoppers, followed by Small Business Saturday with 47.4 million people going in-store to make purchases.
Cyber Monday
With more people shopping online than ever before, it’s no surprise that Cyber Monday saw a huge uptick in web traffic and sales. “Cyber Monday sales topped $7.9 billion, making it the single largest shopping day in U.S. history,” said John Copeland, head of Marketing and Customer Insights at Adobe. “Sales coming from smartphones hit an all-time high of $2 billion and we saw a significant spike in the Buy Online, Pickup In-Store trend.”
Amazon announced in a recent statement that this year’s Cyber Monday became the single biggest shopping day in the company’s history - with the most products sold worldwide, ever, on one day. More than 18 million toys and more than 13 million fashion items were purchased by Amazon customers on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, combined.
It was also the first Cyber Monday in history where more than half of website visits came from a mobile device (51.4% to be exact). Purchases made on mobile accounted for 34% of Cyber Monday sales.
Key Insights
As sales continue through Cyber Week and the month of December, companies are sure to see an increase in web visits as consumers look for the perfect gifts and deals. With mobile on the rise, it’s critical for brands to make sure their online experience is optimized for savvy holiday shoppers.
With more people resorting to shopping online instead of in-store, brands should take notice at this trend that ultimately serves as a win-win for both the brand and consumer during the holidays. Brands will benefit from more online revenue during the busiest time of year, and the consumer will benefit from shopping in the comfort of their home, allowing them to spend more time with loved ones and less time at the mall.
For most brands, the holidays serve as the highest sales period of the entire year. Make sure your holiday strategy and process are implemented early. More and more brands are running “Pre” Black Friday deals the week leading up to Thanksgiving, giving way to larger revenue and top-of-mind awareness amongst shoppers.