Insights

The First "Digital-First" BFCM

Katie Fiechter

Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) looked a bit different this year. Many stores made the decision to remain open, but the days of people standing in line all hours of the night, pushing, shoving, fighting their way through to get the best deals is becoming a thing of the past. In fact, Black Friday Cyber Monday traffic at U.S. stores was down 52% according to Sensormatic Solutions. This was the first “digital-first” BFCM the world has seen. Here’s our take from a few of our partners on data they have published thus far:

SHOPIFY:

  • Total merchant sales were $5.1 billion USD, which represents a 76% increase from the 2019 time period
  • 44+ million consumers around the world purchased from independent and DTC brands on Shopify – which is a 50% increase from last year.
  • Sales over BFCM peaked on Black Friday at 12 pm ET with $102 million+ sales that hour
  • In the week leading up to Cyber Monday, from November 23 through November 30, sales increased by 84% from 2019.

ADOBE:

  • Black Friday 2020 online shopping surges 22% above 2019 numbers to record $9 billion, (numbers pulled from Adobe Analytics data).
  • Adobe’s “Golden Hours of Retail” on Cyber Monday (10 pm to 2 am ET) totaled at least $3.1 billion USD, and at the peak hour (between 11 pm and 12 am), $13 million USD PER MINUTE, up 15% from 2019.

EMARSYS:

  • Email is still the beating heart of most Black Friday outreach, with a huge 834 million promotional emails distributed in the build-up to the event — 21% more than last year.
  • Engagement with these email campaigns has also improved, with a 12% increase in click-throughs to promotional landing pages, compared to 2019.
  • Emarsys saw a 90% increase in push notifications in the run-up to Black Friday.
  • Real-time event triggers that attempt to help influence purchases were up 177% to 189 million.
  • Segment executions to personalize product recommendations and messaging were up by 29% to 14.6 million

SALESFORCE reaches an all-time high in U.S. cyber week digital sales:

  • Salesforce customers grew global digital orders by 62 percent and marketing emails by 9 percent year-over-year during Cyber Week
  • Global online sales hit a new record with $270 billion, up 36 percent compared to 2019
  • Overall digital commerce was up 36 percent globally and 29 percent in the U.S. year-over-year with a 22 percent increase in consumers who participated in Cyber Week this holiday season compared to 2019
  • U.S. retailers that offered curbside, drive-through, and in-store pickup options increased digital revenue by 29 percent on average compared to last Cyber Week.
  • Social media platforms drove 9 percent of global traffic and 10 percent of U.S. traffic to commerce websites over Cyber Week

KLAVIYO

  • Klaviyo customers sent 4.4 Billion Emails across Cyber Weekend, a 72% increase from last year.
  • 50K+ Klaviyo customers created $917 Million dollars of revenue this Cyber Weekend through Klaviyo—that’s up 113% from last year.
  • Klaviyo customers made nearly $1 Billion through Klaviyo since Thanksgiving. That’s 3.1% of all revenue generated over Cyber Weekend.
  • Klaviyo customers generated 8.7 Million orders through Klaviyo since Thanksgiving. That’s a 100% increase from Cyber Weekend 2019

BFCM has truly tested retailers on the lessons learned from this year. Digital-first has long been significant, but now more than ever, retailers need to make sure that all of their digital channels, messaging, and branding are up to par and consistent across channels to keep up with the rising demand, which isn’t going away anytime soon.