What Marketers Can Learn from Black Friday

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A possible recession isn’t freezing consumer spending — but it is pushing consumers toward discounts. That’s the takeaway from the signature bellwethers for holiday shopping, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which saw strong activity levels according to initial figures from Adobe Analytics.

Black Friday YOY Retail Sales Expected to Jump

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While it’s not too late to roll out a Black Friday promotion, the clock is ticking. Experts say now is the time to experiment with discounts and deals designed to win over consumers amid rising inflation and changing consumer habits. 

Report: Black Friday Is Back — With a Vengeance

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According to the findings of a new consumer survey commissioned by UserTesting and conducted by the market research company OnePoll, 43% of shoppers say they miss the frenzy of in-store Black Friday shopping and 42% say in-store shopping is more important now than pre-pandemic.

How Post-Pandemic Shopping Habits Affect Black Friday and Cyber Monday

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Consumers aren’t holding off on gift purchases until the day after Thanksgiving. Retailers who’ve always counted on Black Friday in particular and the Cyber Five (Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday) in general to push them into profitability for the year need to develop new strategies based on data.

How Retailers Are Preparing to Stand Out on Black Friday

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Black Friday and the holiday shopping rush are getting closer — and retailers are getting prepared. Inflation and economic uncertainty have the potential to make the 2022 holiday season a rocky one, putting extra pressure on retailers to beef up their marketing and advertising strategies even earlier than usual.

Tips for Black Friday and Cyber Monday Discounting

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To meet the moment, retailers should be paying attention to the macro-factors impacting the current retail environment, ever-changing customer preferences (even so much as the final days before BFCM), and the nuances of the company’s own assortment and capabilities.

Retail Embraces Omnichannel for the Holidays

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Rather than focusing on one platform or tool, retail brands are embracing everything necessary to engage with customers across multiple touchpoints. That could have a major impact on the way shoppers interact with their favorite brands in the coming weeks, and depending on the results, it could lead to changes in the way retail marketing is handled in 2021.

Retailers Unpack Black Friday Spending Data

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Criteo analyzed commerce data from 1,005 retailers in the U.S. and 216 million transactions in the fourth quarter of 2020. In the process, they found that sales in the first three weeks of November were up 7% year-over-year in the U.S., indicating that Black Friday sales may have been down 5% because those purchases happened earlier this year than previously.

Survey: Consumers Are Taking a Cautious Approach to Black Friday

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Despite the somewhat complicated outlook, there are things retailers can do to change their fate. NMI found that 43% of consumers plan to avoid shopping with retailers that don’t offer contactless payments. Retailers that quickly adapt and add contactless payment options, and then market those changes aggressively over the coming days, still have an opportunity to win back customers who would otherwise be staying home.

Will 2020 Be the Year to End Black Friday?

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Black Friday this year will probably look a lot like it would’ve been in about a decade; we’ve just accelerated the online shift. 2020 will be the year that Black Friday and Cyber Monday stop being shopping ‘days.’ They’ll be turned completely upside down for years to come as retailers embrace a holiday shopping season of deals, strategized and targeted based on insights from online data. 

Has Covid Killed the Single-Day Sale?

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Limited-time offers and one-day sales are a mainstay of the holiday shopping season. But this year is unlike any other, and retailers are taking a different approach.

With Covid-19 restrictions limiting the number of customers who can be inside a store at any given time, retailers are looking at extending the shopping season to accommodate socially distant crowds.

Plan for Black Friday with this E-Commerce Holiday Checklist

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Deloitte’s annual holiday retail forecast projects that e-commerce holiday sales will grow by 25% to 35% year over year, compared to a sales increase of 14.7% last year. Here’s a five-point holiday prep list to help ensure your digital commerce experiences stack up and are ready to engage the influx of shoppers this holiday season.

Retail Prepares for a Covid-Inflected Holiday Season

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The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the shift from brick-and-mortar commerce to digital transactions. It has also forced brick-and-mortars resisting the hybridization of their own businesses to adopt digital methods, turning restaurants and apparel stores alike into both brick-and-mortar establishments and online sellers.

Against that backdrop, retail’s biggest quarter will present novel challenges this year. Retailers will need to optimize for online transactions and contend with fragmented national and global landscapes where it may be safe to go to stores in New York but not in Los Angeles.

Connected Consumers Are More Demanding Than Ever – How Retailers Are Adapting

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As the omnichannel approach to retail takes off, industry insiders are beginning to wonder whether giving shoppers what they want, when they want it, across any connected device, is causing consumers to develop unrealistic expectations about the types of experiences and services their favorite stores can provide.

Mobile Drives Sales on Black Friday

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Data from ShopperTrak showed a 3% decline in traffic at physical stores on Thanksgiving and Black Friday even though sales were up overall. That’s because retailers with strong online shopping programs saw significant gains, with a reported $9.2 billion spent on Cyber Monday alone.

In an analysis of holiday shopping campaigns, the people-based marketing platform LiveIntent found that brands had a “robust” performance on Black Friday weekend. Total conversions during Black Friday weekend stood at 36% higher than that typical time period. Retailers that pushed mobile shopping saw the greatest gains, as LiveIntent’s analysis found that mobile drove the most traffic.

Retailers Hoping for Record Cyber Monday to Follow Friday Windfall

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US retailers set all-time records on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, wracking up $11.6 billion in online sales. Adobe predicts that Cyber Monday will also set a fresh record of $9.4 billion, pushing the Thanksgiving weekend total to nearly $30 billion.

The increasing importance of online sales has forced traditional retailers to compete with e-commerce natives like Amazon not only by offering their own robust set of deals but also by investing in delivery infrastructure and reducing friction for consumers ordering online. 

Should Small Businesses Participate in Black Friday?

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The total amount spent by shoppers on Black Friday in 2018 was $715.5 billion, according to The Balance. What’s even more noteworthy is the average amount spent per shopper, at $1,007.24. This represents an increase of approximately 4.3% over Black Friday 2017 sales. The numbers show that shoppers are ready and willing to spend on Black Friday. So, rather than leaving it to large-scale retailers, if you’re a small business owner, why not consider joining in?

The truth is, you still might be wondering whether the additional time and investment are worth it. Below, we present some pros and cons of participating in Black Friday you may not have considered.

Last-Minute Shoppers Help Small Retailers Compete with Amazon for Holiday Sales

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During the holiday shopping season, it’s Amazon’s world — or is it?

Outside the digital sphere, brick-and-mortar holiday sales at big-box shops like Walmart and Best Buy continue to be buoyed by bullish shoppers willing to hit the streets in search of timely deals during consumer-focused quasi-holidays like Black Friday. As a result, shoppers are spending more during the holidays than ever before. 

And then there’s the independent, local retailer. How is a small shop supposed to compete with the ease of mobile e-commerce or the allure of big-box doorbuster deals? Turns out, they have an ace in the hole: last-minute shoppers. 

Cutting Through the Analytical Clutter: 4 Major Trends this Holiday Season

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As just about the final week of 2018 gets underway, it’s worth taking a look at what we now definitively know about this holiday season. Here are the facts about the role of technology in retail during 2018’s holidays.

LBMA Podcast: Spent Retail Analytics, Reveal Mobile Black Friday Report

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On this week’s LBMA show: Spent retail analytics, LinkSure free global WiFi, Casino competes with AmazonGo in France, McDonald’s dancing in the streets of Bogata, Shopkick + Unilever & Walmart, Verve + AdCouncil for Goodwill. Special Research—Reveal Mobile Black Friday Report.