There are times in the life of an eCommerce store when it needs a push to drive purchases. At Christmas, sales practically make themselves, but the months before are tough because people have spent a lot on vacation and are saving for Christmas gifts. For some years now, campaigns have been run in different parts of the world to boost sales during this period: Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Black Friday. It started in the United States to boost spending around Thanksgiving, celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving, when physical stores offer big discounts for a single day.
Black Friday gave rise to Cyber Monday, a day of massive online-only discounts held on the Monday after Thanksgiving (and therefore after Black Friday).
Following this trend of creating “special days” around Thanksgiving, other key dates have emerged in the US to boost spending or donations. Small Business Saturday falls on the Saturday after Thanksgiving to encourage sales at small businesses; Giving Tuesday is the following Tuesday and is about donating to NGOs or charitable projects; Green Monday is the first or second Monday of December, with online discounts ahead of Christmas; Super Saturday is the last Saturday before Christmas, with big in-store discounts, etc. So far few of these have reached Europe, but Giving Tuesday became popular in Spain in 2015 through the givingtuesday.es website and keeps growing.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday in Spain
In a globalized world, Black Friday and Cyber Monday have spread everywhere and, even though we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, in Spain we also want massive discounts offline and online on these days. Searches for “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday” every November in recent years prove it.
Black Friday
In November 2015 the keyword “Black Friday” got more than one million searches in Spain, beating the record of the previous 5 years.
Cyber Monday
Searches for the keyword “Cyber Monday” have grown strongly over the past 5 years. In 2015 there were 135,000 searches, triple the 2012 figure.
Beyond search interest, sales on these special days grow more every year. In 2014 Black Friday and Cyber Monday generated 1,050 million euros, and in 2015 1,172 million euros (10.6% more). Forecasts suggest sales will rise even further this year.
How can I use these days to drive sales in my eCommerce store?
As we’ve seen, Spanish internet users look forward to these days. We can boost our eCommerce sales by riding the Cyber Monday wave (also called eDay in Spain) with discounts on our products.
Will every eCommerce store multiply its sales on eDay or Cyber Monday? Yes and no, with nuances. We need to know our market segment well and bear in mind that online shoppers are typically aged 18 to 45, middle or upper-middle class, and spend an average of 70 euros per purchase.
We need to make sure the products we offer suit the Spanish online shopper profile and are also timeless. For example, a costume store is unlikely to triple its sales, since by November Halloween is over and Carnival is a long way off.
Some sectors sell more than others on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. If your eCommerce store is in one of them, start planning your campaigns now. The top-selling sectors on these days are:
- Clothing. Searches for related keywords rise by 2% on these days.
- Footwear. 3% increase in searches.
- Electronics. 8% increase in searches on these days, especially laptops (up 11%) and electronic accessories (11%).
- Sports and fitness. Keyword searches in this sector rise by 5% during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, with a notable 24% increase in searches for personal training categories.
- Home (furniture, décor and appliances). 7% increase in searches during the promotional days.
Almost half of Cyber Monday is mobile
Mobile devices play an ever bigger role in searching and shopping. In 2015, 38% of searches for Black Friday or Cyber Monday terms were made on smartphones. Considering that 53% of online purchases that same year were made on mobile… It’s important for our eCommerce store to be well optimized for mobile!
Sales strategies for Black Friday and Cyber Monday
If you’ve decided to offer special discounts in your eCommerce store on these November days, there are a few things to be clear on.
– Offer big discounts. Shoppers are hunting for “super deals” and discounts of at least 10%; otherwise they won’t buy much.
– Go for a CyberWeekend or CyberWeek. If discounts last more than a day, sales will rise even further.
– Make sure you can handle more visits and orders in your online store and logistics system.
– mCommerce. Make sure the mobile version works properly for both browsing and checkout.
– Promote your deals. Discounts are useless if users don’t know about them. Promote them through banners in your online store, email marketing campaigns, your company or store’s social media, AdWords or Facebook Ads, etc.
At the Trilogi Digital Marketing department we can advise you and create an effective campaign to promote your discounts.
In 2016 Black Friday falls on November 25 and Cyber Monday on November 28. There’s still time to plan discounts for your eCommerce store. Are you in?
