The all-important Holiday Shopping Season is expanding. The line for Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales is becoming more flexible as retailers start earlier and extend longer to jump-start and extend the selling season to capture market share and stay ahead of the curve.
Cyber Week remains supreme for shoppers as the year’s most important shopping weekend. Data shows that Shoppers aren’t shying away from buying this holiday season.
National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics report that over this Holiday Season, Thanksgiving weekend through Cyber Monday 2022, 196.7 million USA consumers shopped online and in stores. That is a record benchmark, which is 17 million more people than the previous year.
Retailers, this year, offered unusually deeper discounts on goods due to high inventory levels because consumers are focusing their budgets on increasingly pricy living-expense necessities like gas and groceries.
However, initial analysis of this year’s holiday shopping, Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, suggests that consumers didn’t hold back on spending despite Inflation.
The Key things to report about this year:
- Increased online traffic, conversion rates, and spending are still below pre-pandemic levels but exceeded spending over the past two years.
- Average $325 on holiday-related purchases from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday.
- Consumers are looking for deals. The average markdown this year was 30%.
- The biggest Discounts were on Home Appliances (42%). Apparel and luxury handbags experienced the 2nd & 3rd most significant discounts across all spending categories at 33% and 32%, respectively.
- One primary Commerce Cloud provider reported conversion rates 3.4 times more than last year and Cyber Monday conversion rates 2.9 times more than last year.
Amount of Money Spent on Black Friday 2022.
According to data from Adobe Analytics, consumers spent $9.12 billion online on Black Friday alone. That’s up more than 2% compared with last year. On Cyber Monday, shoppers spend $11.3 billion, up almost 6% from last year. That calculates to about $12.8 million spent every minute from 5 to 6 p.m. EST, the peak shopping hour of Cyber Monday.
Reasons driving the results in 2022
Experts have commented that Inflation and a looming recession have impacted consumer spending, but not in the way most people would expect. Predictions were that consumers would buy less but pay more.
Three Things That Have influenced this Years’s Outcome.
1. Because retailers were sitting on tons of inventory this season, deals and promotions have been abundant.
2. Shoppers are spreading out purchases by starting their buying earlier in the season
3. Consumers are either dipping into savings to take advantage of discount deals or relying on credit cards and several other available buy-now and pay-over-time options.
Keys for Brands for this Upcoming Year.
Although the current confidence index is at 96.5, it’s difficult to determine if spending will stay at current levels through the new year. Despite the uncertainty, agile retailers can still cater to consumer needs while responding to evolving market conditions.
There is a clear mandate to keep improving Customer Experience. By leveraging the right technology to monitor erratic shopping behaviors, organizations can quickly identify and pivot to growth opportunities by adding additional touchpoints and experiences.
Ensure that the last meter of the buying journey for shoppers is frictionless. Be aware of maintaining inventory levels that match demand and ensuring no backlog in fulfillment operations. Executing this will ultimately avoid the onslaught of post-holiday returns, which can stunt revenue growth.
Group FiO develops ‘purpose-built’ solutions that help brands adapt and succeed with CX. Schedule a conversation to determine how we can assist you with the technology needed for you to prosper.