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CommerceNext: Cyber Week Recap: Lessons Learned and Advice for 2021
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Overview
Benchmarking what success looks like in this year poses another challenge in a year of many. eCommerce has catapulted to the top in the list of priorities. But does the success of eComm depend on the store? And will the once-store traffic seamlessly transition into the digital? Some of the top retail industry leaders discuss what to expect this holiday season as the numbers come in, followed by actionable steps to ensure your strategy turns towards success towards 2021.
TAKEAWAYS
Sales Predictions & Actuals
Aggregating the data of Bloomreach, Adobe and Salesforce all platforms saw growth YoY for Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday eComm Sales. Historically, Black Friday has resulted in high in-store shopping behavior with a slight spike for eComm, according to Jason Goldberg. Due to the current climate, Black Friday for eComm did experience the biggest day of growth for the three large shopping days. The growth for Black Friday yielded the highest increase for each platform, followed by Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday.
Adobe forecasted sales to be higher than they were - coming in at 8 - 15% lower than anticipated for a total of $4.5 b below estimates for these three core shopping days. Similar to Adobe, the results of these shopping days did not hit all their forecasted numbers. Notably, CyberMonday did surpass the projections and spend on Black Friday.
Historically, Cyber Monday has outperformed Black Friday for eComm. Black Friday saw the largest increase in YoY growth, resulting in a 23.7% increase. As a whole, YoY growth during Cyber Week came in at 36% indicating that a lot of this lift was for outside of the core shopping days.
The Results: Transactions & Sales
The 95% decrease in foot traffic for in-store led to a lower amount of transactions and sales on Thanksgiving, with a decline of 96% in transactions. Sales for this day took less of a hit, with a 63% decrease. This can draw the summary that while there were less foot traffic and transactions, the average transaction value was higher than the previous year.
Contrasting the results of Thanksgiving, Black Friday’s 52.1% dip in traffic only resulted in a decrease of 19% for total transactions, and the sales for this day paralleled the total transactions by dropping 19% YoY.
While these decreases are worth noting, the days surrounding the launch of the Cyber-5 had more positive results, setting up a trajectory to improve with each day to move towards growth, as indicated by the chart below. This could indicate that while shoppers still want to shop in-store, they spaced out their shopping periods to avoid the crowds. Cyber Monday, which is notable for being an online shopping day, saw a 42% growth in transactions and a 12% growth in sales YOY.
This drop in sales on Black Friday could be accounted to the extended promotions. “Retailers put promotions all month..promoting a Cyber November”, stated Tomas Diaz, CEO and Cofounder of flexEngage, with many retailers starting November 1st, to drive Holiday sales. “It absolutely worked..and overall we are going to have a very strong holiday season”, he said, with Cyber-5 ultimately resulted in an 8% decrease in transactions and a 12% decrease in sales for in-store and the month of November resulting in only a 2.9% decline in transactions and a 2.3% decline in sales for the month. The results indicate that transactions and sales were up for the days and weeks prior to the Cyber-5.
The Continued Rise of Last Mile
While the number of orders raised for eComm, some of this growth can be attributed to omnichannel strategies. Most notably, BOPIS and Curbside both increased by 52% this year for Black Friday, with curbside increasing 30% YoY for Cyber Monday as well. These results highlight the importance of continued focus on last-mile delivery options, since retailers who offered curbside, drive-through and in-store pickup increased digital revenue by 29% for YOY when compared to only 22% for those who did not offer these fulfillment options.
As we move towards last-minute purchasing for the holidays and shipping windows close, how can retailers keep sales strong in a much needed time? “There’s going to be a lot of buy online, pick up instore..curbside...there’s going to be a lot of people coming in and shopping, said Tomas, “retailers are going to do promotions and offers [encouraging buying a product in-store.] That’s how they will get around shipageddon.”.
Where Now?
Comparing the data to last year can be difficult, considering that spend didn’t halt but transferred to different sectors. Jason Goldberg pointed out that while many of us have not taken a vacation in the past year, many have moved that spend to home improvements.
Similar to the rest of the year, the data should not be used to predict where spending will fall, but rather how consumers will buy. Many retailers such as Snipes and DXL are investing in the purchasing path. “Retailers really need to give it a good look...what are they giving back to the consumer at this point?”, mentioned Jenna Flateman Posner, VP of Digital for Snipes. “A big strategy we have next year is leveraging the data from our digital receipt system [and] eComm information...to create that 360-degree view.” Ujjwal Dhoot, CMO of DXl also cited, “the retailers with the best customer experience..with the best omnichannel infrastructure.. will come out stronger in 2021”.