Trends and Tips for Black Friday 2018

 

Each year customers are spending more money on Black Friday! 2017 showed record numbers for Tradedoubler across EMEA. Compared to 2016 the order value went up by 71%, number of sales by 39%, the average order value by 23% and the average order value on Smartphones by 20%. Cyber Monday (on 26th of November 2018) and Black Friday (on 23rd of November 2018) should remain the busiest shopping days for 2018 as we forecast an 11% uplift year-on-year for 2018.

 

How important is mobile sales?

Shopping on smartphones is becoming more and more popular across EMEA. The biggest increase in mobile sales 2017 compared to 2016 have been noted in Germany and Switzerland (both +54%), followed by the Netherlands (+40%), France (+35%) and Italy (+32%). In absolute numbers Sweden and the UK remained the leaders in mobile sales, but others are catching up:

The EMEA average order value for the whole year 2017 was 82 €. On Black Friday 2017 it rose to 121 €, which is a 23% increase compared to Black Friday 2016. The average order value on smartphones 2017 rose to a global average of 99 €. Top four countries were:

 

Which industries do especially benefit from Black Friday?

Across EMEA, the three industries that generated most order value on Black Friday have also shown significant growth rates compared to Black Friday 2016:

 

For Computer & Electronics Black Friday was the most significant business driver across the whole of EMEA. Average order value on an average day in 2017 was 138 €, on Black Friday the AOV more than doubled to 278 €. Number of sales in this industry on Black Friday went up to 632% compared to an average day in 2017. This number has just been beaten by the Shopping & Retail industry, where Black Friday’s number of sales went up to an incredible 692% compared to an average day in 2017. The average across all industries 2017 was 523%, so definitely all industries do benefit from this special day!

 

What should advertisers bear in mind?

Looking at our user journey stats we have seen a large increase of customers going to blogger and content sites, researching purchases up to 3 weeks before the Black Friday period. So many customers are preparing and waiting for the offers to drop – even customers have their own buying strategies – and this a great opportunity to evaluate your affiliate strategy. Review your payment models for that week, set-up tiered commissions to incentivise publishers or offer bonuses to sites higher up the funnel. It’s especially important to reward the publishers contributing to the end sale during this period.

Four tips from Rebecca Rowe, Head of Client Services UK & IE:

  1. Make sure your website can handle the large impact BF & CM will have.
    On peak shopping days like Black Friday, your website will experience an enormous amount of traffic, which can cause your website to simply break, and unfortunately, this is exactly what happens every year even to major retailers. We strongly advise you to perform tests and ensure your website can handle the surge in traffic.
  2. Start your Black Friday planning early enough.
    The key to taking advantage of the Black Friday weekend is to get your promotions out as early as possible to build demand and excitement. Put together your strategy on what products, offers and type of customers you want to target! Speak with your affiliate teams so they can support accordingly to your plans and manage other channel activities, keep an eye on your social media and speak to your customers to get feedback on your brand.
  3. Learn from last year’s results – and have enough stock.
    Evaluate everything from what went well to what was a disaster! Before you plan all your offers, make sure you have enough stock –  we wouldn’t want your site to have ‘out of stock’ for the week. Which affiliates worked for Black Friday? Did you overspend on tenancies that didn’t convert? Were all links live and offers correct?
  4. Leverage publishers to help you upsell
    It’s not always about new customers, there is so much opportunity to upsell during this week. Customers are ready to spend, so ensure you include publishers who can support this. Speak to your account manager and run through the potential players you want supporting your Black Friday & Cyber Monday success.

Black Friday Cyber Monday is a huge opportunity for your business, focus on giving some special offers to your publishers if you want to increase performance and take advantage of your affiliate program, work closely with your network account team and potential partners to ensure you have everything planned and in place so you can make the most out of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Happy selling! 🙂

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