When it comes to retail, there is no more important weekend than the one that encompasses Black Friday and Cyber Monday. These days both represent huge opportunities for sales. Brick and mortar shops get cleaned out on Black Friday, while online boutiques are hit hard for Cyber Monday. Or so we’re told. It actually might make more sense for online businesses to continue focusing on Black Friday – and here’s why.
More Online Sales
The folks over at My Voucher Codes took a look at the figures and came up with some interesting statistics. The fact is that online sales are increasing year on year across the whole weekend. A raise of 11% in the UK hit e-commerce sites last year. This means that whatever shoppers are looking to buy, they are getting more and more likely to do it online. That’s very encouraging for online sales, and if it continues as a trend, Black Friday could soon be more online than not.
Higher Spending Rates
Across the four days between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, consumers in the UK spent £3.3 billion last year. Interestingly, a full £1 billion of that was on Black Friday. This shows that Black Friday is still the number one day for spending of the year. Cyber Monday saw a lower spend with £943 million, which leaves the remaining Saturday and Sunday as the lowest earners of the weekend. It’s likely that chronology plays a part here: many shoppers will buy the items that they want on the first day of the sale, and may not have as much budget left by the Monday.
Bigger Increase in Traffic
How about how much traffic comes to your website on each of the days? There is a 60% increase in traffic on Cyber Monday, but remember that this is traffic only – not necessarily sales. For Black Friday, there is a 223% increase in sales, which is more than 3 times the raise. This means that if you want to have the best sales day of the year, it’s likely to come on the Friday, more than it is the Monday. Amazon, in particular, does very well on Black Friday, and this is the biggest e-commerce site out there.
More Year on Year Recognition
Finally, let’s talk about how quickly consumers are picking up on these holidays. Recognition is certainly increasing in the UK, at a more or less steady rate. There was a 35% increase in year on year sales for the last Black Friday, while only a 34% increase for Cyber Monday. It’s only a small difference, but since Black Friday already has the lead, that means that it takes the win in this category too. It only looks set to grow, and as the UK adopts the sales more and more seriously, you can expect increasing figures in years to come.
In every category, it looks like Black Friday takes the win. So, even if you are an e-commerce business, it makes sense to focus even more on this big event than on Cyber Monday. While that may change in the future, it certainly makes sense for businesses to market Black Friday deals the most in the current market.
