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In the past, Black Friday & Cyber Monday have been treated as a day or week-long shopping spree, but that’s not how things work any longer. The retail industry has become increasingly competitive and consumers are already planning ahead with their holiday spending budgeting. In order of importance to small business owners this year, here is what you should know about Black Friday & Cyber Monday trends in 2021 。
The “black friday amazon” is a day of shopping that has been around for years. The “black friday amazon” has become more popular over the years with businesses and consumers alike. This year, Black Friday falls on November 23rd, which is Cyber Monday.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) are two of the busiest shopping days of the year, with significant financial implications for merchants. According to Salesforce statistics, US merchants witnessed $62 billion in online sales during Cyber Week in 2021 (the week/long weekend encompassing BFCM), accounting for almost 22% of all online sales for the holiday season.
Consumers are eager to purchase in late November, and they want you to provide bargains beginning the day after Thanksgiving and continuing into the following week. That message should be heeded by your company if you want to remain competitive throughout the Black Friday weekend.
Let’s take a look at some Black Friday numbers for 2021, including Cyber Monday data, as well as some significant lessons for your organization.
1. On Black Friday, about 180 million people shopped.
According to the National Retail Federation, over the BFCM holiday weekend, 179.8 million unique customers made in-store and online transactions. This surpassed the NRF’s original predictions by nearly 21 million people, although it is still somewhat less than the 186.4 million shoppers that attended the BFCM weekend in 2020.
2. Shoppers spent an average of $301.27 on holiday-related products during the Thanksgiving weekend.
Gifts and holiday-related items such as food and décor cost an average of $301.27 per BFCM consumer. This is a good result, but it falls short of the $311.75 average we saw in 2020.
3. Year-over-year spending was down roughly 1.5 percent.
Consumer spending was down 1.4 percent and 1.3 percent on Cyber Monday and Black Friday, respectively, according to the Adobe Digital Economy Index, each reflecting around $100 million less in sales.
4. Due to supply chain difficulties, the number of products sold during Cyber Week decreased by 6%.
The quantity of items sold over the BFCM weekend in 2021 was down 6% from what it was in 2020 in the United States. This, according to Salesforce, is due to supply chain challenges and a shortage of merchandise on the shelves.
Many stores are experiencing product shortages as a consequence of supply chain concerns caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. (Image courtesy of Cleveland.com)
5. The most popular gift categories over the weekend were clothing and accessories.
Clothing and accessories were the most popular presents over the BFCM weekend, according to the NRF, with 51 percent of survey participants purchasing them. Toys were in second place (32%), followed by gift cards (28%), books/music/movies/video games (27%), and gadgets (27%). (24 percent ).
6. 47% of Christmas buyers expected to make non-gift purchases as a result of sales or price cuts.
In 2021, slightly less than half of customers expected to spend an average of $118.41 on non-gift sale products. That’s on track with 2020, but down from a year ago, when 60% of consumers spent an average of $162.02 on bargain products.
7. Every day of the holiday week, more people bought online than in shops.
While in-store shopping increased in 2021 over 2020 (which we’ll discuss later), online shopping channels continued to dominate throughout the BFCM shopping season.
8. Many shoppers remained committed to supporting local companies.
As small companies suffered during the epidemic, a social conscience arose to help them—and it hasn’t died out since 2021. On BFCM weekend’s Small Business Saturday, more than 70% of customers stated they came out particularly to support small businesses.
During many people, shopping locally remained a high priority for the BFCM weekend in 2021. (Photo courtesy of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce)
9. Revenue from Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) grew by 21%.
The popularity of BNPL services is expanding, as seen by the BFCM weekend. In comparison to 2020, BNPL’s Cyber Monday revenue climbed by more than 20%.
10. Online orders with curbside pickup accounted for 18% of all orders.
On Cyber Monday, over one-fifth of all online purchases were for curbside pickup, suggesting that having this service accessible is essential for converting sales in 2022.
11. Retailers that offered a pickup option saw a 50% increase in sales compared to those who did not.
A research from Salesforce revealed that stores that offered curbside or in-store pickup options raised their Black Friday sales by 50% on average year over year, compared to businesses who did not.
Pickup alternatives provide your consumers additional choices for shopping and may be the deciding factor in a conversion. (Image courtesy of Vend)
12. With 66.5 million in-store customers on Black Friday, in-store shopping is making a return.
People are returning to shops as the epidemic draws to a close. In reality, 66.5 million people visited stores on Black Friday. This was a 61 percent increase in foot traffic compared to the same day in 2020, according to RetailNext statistics. While this increase is encouraging, in-store visitation in 2019 was still 27 percent lower than pre-pandemic levels.
As the tensions around COVID-19 began to dissipate, customers returned to the shops to take advantage of the Black Friday sales. (Image courtesy of USA Today)
“While in-store purchasing is still not back to 2019 levels,” Brian Field, senior director of global retail consulting at Sensormatic Solutions, stated, “more customers felt comfortable visiting shops in person this Black Friday than in 2020.” “Continued supply chain issues and delivery delays might be one reason of this increasing traffic.”
13. As foot traffic increased, retailers witnessed a decline in the number of online customers.
Foot traffic surged throughout the retail sector during the BFCM weekend, signaling a return to normality. In fact, during the holiday weekend, nearly 104.9 million customers visited retailers, up from 92.3 million in 2020. Furthermore, with a 12% decline in online consumers by 2020, the balance between in-store and online seems to be approaching equilibrium.
14. The biggest increased foot traffic was in footwear and apparel.
People seem to be still being picky about what they are going to go shopping for, with footwear and clothing foot traffic increasing the most throughout the BFCM weekend in 2020. Footwear and apparel store traffic increased by 86 percent and 75 percent, respectively, according to RetailNext. However, traffic is still not where it was in 2019, with decreases of 24% and 23% in those two categories, respectively.
15. Shoppers utilized their mobile devices to make purchases.
The growth in mobile browsing and transactions is an increasing trend in retail in general, and the BFCM weekend observed this as well. In fact, mobile devices accounted for 69 percent of online product discovery and browsing over the weekend, compared to just 31 percent for laptops and desktops.
Mobile sales accounted for 16.42% of Black Friday ecommerce revenue.
According to Adobe research, mobile sales accounted for 42.4 percent of Black Friday ecommerce income. This equates to over $3.7 billion, a 2% rise over the previous year and a new Black Friday high.
17. Discounts were not as generous as in prior years.
Discounts in 2021 were much smaller than in prior years. On Cyber Monday, the following were the average discount levels:
- Apparel accounts for 18% of the total (20 percent in 2020)
- Televisions: 13% (18 percent in 2020)
- Electronics account for 12% of the total (27 percent in 2020)
- 8% of the market is made up of sporting items (20 percent in 2020)
- 8% of the budget goes to appliances (20 percent in 2020)
“Holiday inflation combined with lesser discounts meant bargains were tougher to locate this year,” according to Salesforce’s data. In comparison to previous year, the average selling price (ASP) increased by 11% in the United States and 5% internationally during Cyber Week. Meanwhile, the average Cyber Week discount was… down 8% year over year.”
18. During Cyber Week, global marketing communications exploded.
On this competitive weekend, retailers were doing all they could to contact their consumers, and marketing communications like SMS and email were one of their top methods. Over 40 billion communications were delivered to consumers over the BFCM weekend, up 34% from 2020. Not only that, but mobile push alerts surged by 114% year over year, and email volume jumped by 25%.
Over the BFCM weekend, businesses are utilizing fresh and imaginative marketing methods to stand out. With our articles on Black Friday and Cyber Monday marketing techniques, you may learn more about how to remain competitive.
Conclusion
Previously, there was a distinction between Cyber Monday and Black Friday. With the rising trend of customers shopping online and doing so earlier and earlier, Black Friday has become the start of a weekend of offers that buyers anticipate to go all the way through to Cyber Monday (and sometimes even beyond).
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are two of the busiest shopping days of the year, and if you can leverage on the increased purchasing intent that these days offer, your company may benefit handsomely.
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