Greg Wise says, “With Black Friday totals down from last year, according to a survey by Nielsen, and total sales for the day slipping more and more each year, is it safe to say that the biggest shopping day of the year is losing its luster? Sure, Black Friday sales topped out at around $10.4 billion, but that’s down almost 10% from last year’s $11.6 billion. There are quite a few possibilities for the decline, with many shouting that opening on Thanksgiving will harm Black Friday sales. However, Thanksgiving sales were also down by 10%. One of the reasons for that might be the number... [...]

Jordan Simas says, “Seasonal and Black Friday shoppers are unique in that many of them will buy your products without knowing anything about your brand. This means they might forget about your business entirely if you don’t make an effort to keep them interested. Turning Black Friday shoppers into repeat customers can have an enormous impact on the success of your business; over time they’ll cost less, buy more, and even develop a real connection with your business. Now that Black Friday is over, turning these first-time customers into lifetime fans should be your number one priority. In... [...]

Brian Hughes says, “Despite the continued hype around social media, retailers are still figuring out how to best drive sustainable e-commerce purchases via social media. In 2015, we saw major developments including Pinterest’s launch of the “Buy it” button and Instagram’s expanded ad program. Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube also made their sites and apps more eCommerce-friendly with the addition of new buy buttons. While social commerce may still only drive a small fraction of retail sales, small businesses can’t ignore its impact. According to the Internet Retailer’s Social... [...]

Pamela Parker says, “Americans are getting more serious about their online holiday shopping as Black Friday approaches. According to aggregate e-commerce figures from HookLogic, which runs an ad network on retail sites like Walmart, Target, Best Buy and Macy’s, traffic to product pages was up 53 percent in the week beginning Monday, November 16, as compared to the baseline established in October. Compared with the previous week, traffic was up 15 percent. Meanwhile, the folks visiting those product pages were increasingly likely to move from browsing to buying. HookLogic says the conversion... [...]

Greg Sterling says, “Black Friday ain’t what it used to be. The cultural ritual (if I can call it that) appears to have lost some of its mojo, as many retailers, seeking attention and competitive advantage, make Black Friday-style deals available before Thanksgiving. There has also been a shift of some in-store shopping to online (and mobile). According to in-store analytics provider ShopperTrak, brick-and-mortar retail sales on Thanksgiving and Black Friday this year came in at roughly $12.1 billion, which is lower than in 2014. Specifically, Black Friday brought in $10.4 this year versus... [...]

Jawad Khan says, “One of the biggest weekends for online retailers and eCommerce companies in the U.S, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are just a few days away. Last year, Black Friday and Thanksgiving sales reached unprecedented scales with more than $1.5 billion in a single day. This year, however, Cyber Monday, in particular, promises to be even bigger and better. But did you create your eCommerce website design with buyer conversions in mind? To take advantage from the customer surge this Black Friday, here are a few things you should do immediately. 1. Switch to a Responsive Website Design The... [...]

There are a number of well-known eCommerce platforms. Perhaps Shopify is the best known, but there are also BigCommerce, Volusion, Spark Pay, CoreCommerce and others. They all do a reasonable job of helping you get an eCommerce store up and running, but they also share another characteristic: The require ongoing monthly payments. Now, there is a new platform for eCommerce that doesn’t charge you a monthly fee or charge you a commission whenever you make a sale: SaleJunction. This new software is available for a single one-time charge. It also has the advantage of not requiring any supplemental... [...]

Jack Simpson says, “Black Friday is less than half a week away, which means it’s almost time to forget about the woes of the world for one day and get lost in some good-old-fashioned consumerist escapism. In light of this being the UK’s biggest 24 hours for ecommerce and what with us being a digital marketing blog, we thought we’d better bring you some of the best Black Friday stats we’ve seen so far. UK will spend £1bn this Black Friday UK shoppers will spend £1.07bn on 27 November, according to data from Experian and IMRG. In 2014 consumers spent £810m on this date, meaning... [...]

Jack Simpson says, “If you’re not constantly testing and tweaking pages on your ecommerce site you could be missing out on potential sales.  But showing is always more powerful than telling, so I’m going to present you with some solid examples of A/B testing in action, along with the results. Country clothing retailer A Hume first realised the benefits of testing back in 2012, when it redesigned its checkout login screen and billing details process. According to James Abbott, the brand’s director of digital strategy and optimisation, the results were impressive. “The test was... [...]

Tracy Maple says, “IBM client web sales rose 12.1% last weekend, while ChannelAdvisor reports 13.9% growth in sales last week for merchants on Amazon. Online sales the weekend before Thanksgiving increased 12.1% compared with the same period in 2014, according to data from IBM released Monday. Meanwhile, ChannelAdvisor reported that its clients’ sales on Amazon.com, which often track broader e-commerce growth, rose 13.9% for the week ended Saturday. According to the IBM data, collected from its e-retailer clients, consumers also spent more per order Saturday and Sunday than they did on... [...]