Thanksgiving weekend is the traditional start of the holiday shopping season. Black Friday and Cyber Monday serve as enticing advertising hooks for retailers to boost the Christmas shopping market. In today’s newsletter, I’ll focus on the challenges and thrills of Cyber Week.
Coming out of the COVID years, retailers and people are looking forward to the 2022 Cyber Week with excitement and hope. Last year around this time, there were worries about the pandemic and the supply chain. Those worries seem to have passed this year, giving merchants some breathing room.
Historically Black Friday and Cyber Monday create the most digital commercial activity of the year. Data from Adobe Analytics shows that Cyber Monday 2020 was the biggest online shopping day in U.S. history, generating a staggering $10.8 billion. But, shoppers spent almost $100 million less in 2021. In 2022, according to Digital Dot, online sales will account for around 21% of global retail sales, a 50% rise over pre-pandemic levels.
Cyber Week has become increasingly popular among brands. This competition between brands to engage customers generates several reflections. We are now in a market where no retailer can survive Cyber Week without discounts and paid marketing. Indeed, this is a very complex combination. All advertisers compete to attract specific segments of the audience – the holiday shoppers. Competition increases the cost of acquiring new customers while offering discounts cuts into profits. It forced brands to innovate strategies to mitigate the impact of high customer acquisition costs.
A retailer seeking to catch the buying frenzy should focus on data and trends to generate as much traffic as possible on these big days. Concentrate on the most engaged and profitable prospects. Focus on boosting the conversion rate. And attempt to increase the average basket size via cross-offers, bundles, and a reduced shipping price. During this expensive time of year, your business must carefully balance quality, user experience, and media strategy.
Cyber week is not just another shopping weekend. Beyond wrapping paper and ribbons, this is the most exciting time of the year for marketers to witness the retail war.
Happy Cyber Monday!
Arijit
