Cyber Week E-commerce in Review

Retail industry results from the weekend point to a mixed bag, with pockets of record-breaking growth in e-commerce despite major challenges to the brick-and-mortar environment.

Adobe Analytics reported a 21% increase in online spending for Black Friday, whereas RetailNext reported Black Friday foot traffic down by 48% from last year. Across Backbone e-commerce clients for the Cyber Week period (Tuesday-Monday), we saw average revenue growth of 34.5% and session growth of 17.5% compared to 2019. This average certainly encapsulates a wide range, as Backbone brands employed very different promotional strategies (ranging from gift with purchase, to site-wide discounts, to no discount at all). Another factor to consider is potential saturation of demand for outdoor products; with the COVID-19 challenges this spring/summer, many brands have spent more time with products on sale this year than they might have in a normal year. On the other hand, other brands did no discounting at all and still saw record sales for the week.

Looking day by day, the first trend worth highlighting is that the promotion period started very early this year, with 66% of Backbone e-commerce clients launching an online promotion prior to the traditional Black Friday start date. The resulting outcome was that spikes in revenue were not as concentrated on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, rather they were spread more evenly across the week. In fact, the biggest single-day revenue growth came on Thanksgiving Day, with Backbone clients up an average of 97% over last year, followed by Tuesday (pre-Thanksgiving), where Backbone clients were up 93%. Black Friday reigned supreme from a total revenue standpoint, with many clients experiencing record-setting sales on the traditional in-store shopping holiday. This was fairly expected — without the crowded rush to shop in person, shopping online and shopping early in the week was more appealing. While Cyber Monday was another strong day in total sales, only 7% growth was seen on average compared to 2019.

While most of 2020 saw decreased advertiser spending and subsequently lower CPMs compared to 2019, this trend shifted dramatically starting in September for Google and mid-November for Facebook/Instagram. We typically expect to see a massive increase in CPMs going into the shopping season, however, each day of Cyber Week recorded higher CPMs than 2019 on both platforms. Luckily, much of the heavy lifting in terms of prospecting for clients was done earlier in the fall to grow remarketing pools. That said, the late-November CPM growth certainly had an impact on campaigns across the board.

Creative activations for Cyber Week varied greatly by client, but a few key trends came to the forefront for 2020. For one, sales lasted significantly longer, with some continuing through the whole week. This was highlighted by our client average of 9.4 days on sale, much longer than the traditional four-day period. Secondly, we saw many clients run with creative focused on “Shop your Values” themes, with specific activations for Small Business Saturday, Women-Led Wednesday and Giving Tuesday. According to Adobe Analytics, “44 percent of consumers planned to support small and local retailers this holiday season, with 38 percent saying they would make a deliberate effort to shop at smaller retailers throughout the holiday season.” Finally, we found more urgency was baked into creative messaging given the uncertainty around shipping cutoffs. Many brands made it very clear: this was your best time to shop to get your gift in time for the holidays