Christmas and Black Friday 2023 - The Fun, The Facts, The Figures
Our partners Airship & Toggle are hospitality’s leading CRM and commerce platforms and expertly positioned to report on Black Friday week.
Here are their top the tips on how to get the most out of it!
Black Friday 2022 pulled out some interesting and unexpected insights. Each insight here can be used, in some way, to build your own approach to Black Friday 2023 (as well as ther est of the festive season)
Black Friday is a week long!
Many brands are feeding out their Black Friday offers on the Monday before, and running them all week. However, while the offers and purchases lurch upwards on the Monday, there is still a huge spike on Black Friday itself. So, people are happy to spend early, and are on the lookout for early deals, but the allure of the big day still exists.
Conversion rates from emails are amazing
Honestly, this is so powerful and may be one of the biggest takeaways from our research.
The average conversion rate (that is, the percentage of people who landed on a webshop that then went on to make a purchase) across the week was 11.2%. That’s really, really good.
When people arrived on a webshop from an email, however, the conversion rate was consistently around 20%. We know you’re good at maths, but that’s 1 in 5 people who landed on your webshop from an email made a purchase. That’s crazy high!
Those who landed on your page from social media on the other hand, generally had a conversion rate around 4%. Let’s be clear, that’s still a pretty good ecommerce conversion rate - but it’s nothing compared to what you can achieve.
Digital rules 🤘
As you might expect, the majority of cards purchased across the Black Friday week were digital. 78% of all purchases were digital. 13% opted for a physical card, and 6% were bought in-venue.
People spend a lot longer on your webshop
during Black Friday
This is a stat that surprised us a little, but there must be something in it.
People spend twice as long on webshops on Black Friday itself than any other day - 3 minutes. So, make sure your shop is looking as good as it can be; full of information, and loaded with all sorts of other cards, experiences, and merchandise. They may only be there to buy, getting the range of what you do across while people are in browsing mode is a big opportunity further down the line.
Most people view Black Friday on mobile,
but spend more on desktop
75% of people viewed a webshop did so on a mobile, and 21% were on a desktop.
However, desktop performs a little better with a longer viewing time, a higher conversion rate and a higher average transaction value: £71 average spend for desktop compared to mobile’s £62.
Who is buying on Black Friday?
Toggle gifting stats have never really varied that much. 60% of purchasers were female and 40% male, but crucially, from our deep dive into web-analytics, they’re folk who are into dining, arts, travel, clothing, health, and sports.
Additionally, it seems gift cards have a broad age range appeal, but topping the charts was 26 to 35 years old.
Is Cyber Monday still a thing?
It is and it isn’t. While most brands ran a Black Friday offer until Monday, there was no noticeable spike. But that’s not really a negative. The purchasing levels on Monday were broadly similar to all the days that lead up to Black Friday, which were very high anyway. So, to say that level continued after Black Friday, into the weekend and Monday, is quite a run off.
Top Tips for maximising Black Friday
for your business online
Whether it’s Black Friday, Boxing Day, a summer bank holiday sale, or anything else, you can use all the insights and create a really strong offer that your guests will love, but that works for you, too.
Make sure your webshop is full of branding, info and has a punch.
Set up a specific product for a specific event. Branding gift card as a ‘Black Friday gift card’ will boost your gifting sales… even without a discount.
Limited availability campaigns bring incredible success. The most successful campaigns in 2022 were heavily discounted cards where only 1000 (for example) were available. This creates a sense of urgency; making people need to buy.
Restricted validity also works wonders. Launching promotions with a time limit can help you bring guests in during the quietest time of the year, or even just give you a great revenue boost to impress the board with.
Whilst offering 20% off to the wider public; we had a few of our customers also send a specific email with a higher discount to their database. Not only does this mould your customers into brand champions, it also builds the trust that the customer has in your brand by you demonstrably appreciating their loyalty.
Make sure you utilise these tricks for Black Friday and onwards! Start sowing the seeds, hinting at your promotions for the post-Christmas sales, and this will ensure you have guaranteed bookings for January and beyond.