Online sales on Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year were higher than ever, not only in the US, but also in the UK, where the two big American holiday shopping days are just beginning to catch on. That’s good news for all kinds of digital advertisers, because the more potential spenders there are on the web, the better your potential ROI becomes.
If you optimized your campaigns for the holidays and saw an improvement in performance, you’re doing something right (and you should figure out what that “something” is! But that’s a topic for another day). If not, there’s always next year. And we’re willing to bet that next year, Black Friday and Cyber Monday will be even bigger, presenting advertisers with better opportunities than ever.
So, just how big a hit were Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year? We broke down some stats to put it into perspective:
Black Friday Stats
“Black Friday 2013 (November 29) saw $1.198 billion in desktop online sales, making it the season’s first billion dollar day and heaviest online spending day to date, while representing a 15-percent increase versus Black Friday 2012.” [comScore]
“Bad weather in the northeast drove many shoppers online on Black Friday as the majority of the states with the highest year-over-year growth in revenue per visitor were in the storm zone.” [Adobe]
“Online shopping peaked between 11 a.m. and 12 p.m. ET on Black Friday, when retailers pulled in $150 million in a single hour.” [Adobe]
“Thanksgiving Day online sales grew by 19.7 percent year-over-year followed by Black Friday, with sales increasing 19 percent over 2012. Average order value for Black Friday was $135.27, up 2.2 percent year-over-year.” [IBM]
“Top Five Cities for Online Shopping: New York City took the top spot for online sales on Black Friday. Rounding out the top five were Atlanta, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and Chicago.” [IBM]
Prior to Black Friday, Nielson reported, “Only 13 percent of respondents plan to shop in physical stores this Black Friday, down from 17 percent in 2012. This is part of a four-year downward trend, where consumers report a declining interest in Black Friday shopping.” [Nielson]
Cyber Monday Stats
“Cyber Monday wrapped up with 20.6 % growth in record online retail sales over 2012 and remains the biggest online shopping day of the year.” [IBM]
“New York took the top spot for total online retail sales on Cyber Monday. Rounding out the top five were Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Chicago and Atlanta.” [IBM]
“Online shopping on Cyber Monday hit $2.29 billion in sales … up 16% year-over-year.” [Adobe]
“Though traditional brick-and-click retailers dominated Thanksgiving weekend, Internet retailers battled back Monday in the war for holiday shopping dollars with 42% of the day’s total sales—$961 million (Web) vs. $801 million (brick-and-click).” [Adobe]
“Cyber Monday sales peaked between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. Eastern Time, with sales in that hour alone totaling $150 million.” [Adobe]
Prior to Cyber Monday, Nielson reported, “A whopping 88 percent of consumers said they will use their computers again this year to do their Cyber Monday shopping.” [Nielson]
UK Online Holiday Shopping
“In 2012 Black Friday accounted for 44% of the revenue recorded across the two days, whereas this year – boosted by the average sale rising by £17.20 (or 26%) – it was neck and neck with Cyber Monday.” [Econsultancy]
“Combined, Black Friday and Cyber Monday saw sales leap by a third across the 1,500 retailers on the Affiliate Window network. Boosted by a significant 22% increase in the amount the average shopper spent, commissions also spiked by nearly 40%. Sales registered a more modest 10% rise.” [Affiliate Window]
“Similar to US Cyber Monday, UK retailers have adopted big online promotions days known as ‘Mega Mondays.’ … The IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark data report for Monday, November 25, 2013 in the UK revealed online sales grew by 33.5 percent compared to the same Monday in 2012.” [IBM]
“As well as doubling our former record for a single day’s online orders, Friday saw mobile orders climb to more than three times the record for a single day. Online traffic from midnight to 8am was up 323 per cent compared with a normal Friday in November.” [John Lewis]