Cyber Monday Vs Black Friday

 

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are easy to consider as one incredible shopping weekend. Both days can drive more sales to your store, but have you ever paused to consider the differences between the two?

 

Did you know, for example, that Cyber Monday in 2018 broke all previous online sales records, with $7.9 billion in sales?

 

Or that clothing and tech are the most popular categories with shoppers on both of these shopping days?

 

These are some pretty incredible distinctions between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, ones that every retailer should probably become familiar with. Below, we take a close look at how these two closely-related shopping days are the same yet so different.

 

 

 

The important differences between Black Friday and Cyber Monday go back to their different histories. According to DealNews, Black Friday was so named by police manning traffic duty, who noticed the heavy rush of shoppers on the Friday after Thanksgiving.

 

Cyber Monday is a name that came out of workers’ tendencies to continue shopping for deals online when they returned to work the Monday after Thanksgiving.

 

The character of each day has tended to reflect these origins, with heavy in-store traffic on Black Friday, and huge online traffic on Cyber Monday.

 

 

 

Thanks to its focus on online shoppers, Cyber Monday has become a favorite day for digital shoppers.

 

Cyber Monday online sales in 2018 amounted to $7.9 billion. This was a significant jump, 19.3%, over the previous year. It was also the single largest online sales day, bigger even than Black Friday. 

 

Black Friday in 2018 posted $6.2 billion in online sales.

 

 

 

In a sign of where the future of the retail industry lies, mobile shopping on Black Friday and Cyber Monday is growing very rapidly. 

 

Not only is mobile becoming an important source for shopping cart checkouts, but it’s competing very effectively with other shopping channels. These include the brick and mortar store and desktop computer shopping.

 

 

 

Adobe collected a huge trove of data around Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping behaviours. Analyzing 80 of the 100 biggest US ecommerce retailers, Adobe found that smartphones have become “the defacto device” for shopping on the run.

 

This is important because shoppers don’t always have the time to sit at home and pull up products on a laptop or desktop computer.

 

Instead, mobile shopping alone accounted for a record-breaking $2 billion in sales on Cyber Monday. 

 

 

 

Retailers should not be in a rush to write off their physical stores, however. Mobile shopping sites and apps can enhance the appeal of a retailer’s physical store.

 

Adobe’s analytics on Black Friday and Cyber Monday found that retailers that had a physical store benefitted from a 28% higher conversion rate on their online stores. 

 

This counterintuitive finding speaks to the latent benefits of having a showroom where shoppers can easily window shop or pick up orders.

 

 

 

The list of winners in both Black Friday and Cyber Monday retail is consistent with who’s been succeeding in the retail environment of late. 

 

Just as you’d expect, Amazon, with its fine-tuned online selling machine, has performed really well on Cyber Monday. Retailers with a significant physical presence, including Walmart and Target, have done well on Black Friday. 

 

 

 

CNN reported strong Cyber Monday sales from Amazon in 2018. While the company declined to release specific figures, it noted that Cyber Monday 2018 was its best sales day in history up to that point.

 

This included all previous Prime Days, Amazon’s dedicated sales days for its best customers. However, given the break neck speed of ecommerce growth, Prime Day is making a surge of breaking records of its own, so we have not seen the end of that debate yet.

 

For Amazon, it doesn’t hurt that its Alexa-enabled products featured on the best-seller lists for the shopping holidays.

 

Other best-sellers on Black Friday and Cyber Monday included:

 

 

The list of retailers that performed well on Black Friday included traditional brick and mortar operators like Walmart, Kohl’s, Best Buy, as well as Target.

 

Notably, total Black Friday sales, including in-store sales, at $23 billion, were higher than total sales on Cyber Monday.

 

This stretch of the year, from Thanksgiving right until the end of the year is particularly important for retailers. It’s a time when the holiday staples, including jewelry, electronics, and toys, surge to the forefront of consumer demand.

 

A strong American economy also boosted workers’ wages, helping drive retailers’ good fortunes in the 2018 holiday season.

 

 

 

Some of the tactics that work for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, such as prioritizing mobile shopping or giving discounts, are common knowledge now.

 

However, looking at the data and analytics from these two shopping days will guide your store even better on specific tactics you can use.

 

 

 

On Cyber Monday in 2018, just a handful of traffic channels delivered the lion’s share of all sales. These are: 

These are important channels you should be looking at to optimize your campaigns for Cyber Monday and Black Friday.

 

Bloomberg’s analysis of retailers’ Black Friday tactics yielded further helpful insights. They found that Walmart, Target and Best Buy all kicked off promotions well in advance of the actual sales days. These campaigns helped bring in shoppers on Black Friday.

 

 

 

Traditional retailers have long had an aversion to Amazon, given the bad history between Amazon and retailers like Barnes & Noble. Some bold retailers like Best Buy, however, have begun to partner with Amazon rather than compete head to head. 

 

As noted by Bloomberg, Best Buy benefitted from a partnership with Amazon in selling smart televisions that work with Amazon’s Fire smart TV platform.

 

 

 

Blacl Friday and Cyber Monday have important differences steeped in their origins. While Black Friday continues to dwarf Cyber Monday in outright sales, Cyber Monday is notable for its outstanding ecommerce sales. Big retailers like Amazon have found ways to tailor their promotions on these days to their particular strengths. If you are an online-only retailer, Cyber Monday should be a priority for you. On the other hand, brick and mortar retailers continue to see great performance on Black Friday.