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... [...]

Verónica Maria Jarski says, “Here’s a look at the biggest products and visual trends on Instagram this holiday season—and what you can learn from them. “Of every Instagram we analyzed, here’s what’s driving action,” states Curalate in the following infographic. Light images (77%), indoor images (63%), and people (59%) rule Instagram compared to dark images (20%) outdoor images (26%), and 38% (no people). In home decor and improvement, however, users prefer to not see people. “Almost every image (94%) excludes people,” states Curalate. In the publishing... [...]

Amy Gesenhues says, “After the biggest online shopping weekend of the year, email marketing platform Movable Inkreported a 76-percent open rate for mobile emails on Black Friday and 63 percent on Cyber Monday. Breaking down its data by device, Movable Ink found Black Friday email conversions — an email click that resulted in a purchase — were higher on mobile devices versus desktops, with 57 percent of conversions happening on either a smartphone (44 percent) or tablet (13 percent). Based on a total of 21,946 email conversions, mobile conversions were higher than desktop industry-wide,... [...]

Ayaz Nanji says, “Most retailers in the United States waited until after 6:00 AM Eastern Time to send their first email on Cyber Monday this year, according to data from Bronto Software. The report was based on 2015 Cyber Monday data from more than 400 US retailers as well as data from 2011 – 2014. The hour between 7:00 AM and 8:00 AM ET was the busiest time for sending Cyber Monday emails, with 11% of retailers messaging consumers during that period. There was also a flurry of emails sent between 4:00 PM and 6:00 PM ET as retailers tried to entice shoppers with last-minute offers. A... [...]

Jerry Jao says, “It’s been a good holiday shopping season so far for ecommerce retailers: While there was clear fatigue for in-store shopping on Black Friday, shoppers kept their credit cards at the ready for online purchases all through the weekend. ShopperTrak reported a 10.4 percent decrease in in-store sales over the Black Friday weekend, whereas Cyber Monday punched through forecasts to hit $3.07 billion in sales, up 16 percent from last year. But, now, it’s time to think ahead. The Black Friday through Cyber Monday weekend used to be retail’s gold standard when it came to holiday... [...]

Kevin Edwards says, “With the dust settled on another record-breaking trading period, what does the underlying data tell us? This year Affiliate Window’s publishers generated £100m in revenue for 1,600 UK and US retailers across the four day Black Friday weekend bookended by Cyber Monday. That’s a 46% hike in sales revenue for 2015. Here are six underlying trends. 1. Consumers spent more Not only did consumers shun the high street to shop online, but they also dug deeper and splashed more cash. The average basket was a full £7.50 higher at just over £93, making it one of the... [...]

Stephanie Carr says, “As the year draws to a close, here’s some final advertiser inspiration to make those ad budgets work harder. Black Friday spending may have been more than $1bn lower in 2015 compared to 2014, but that meant one thing: plenty more shopping to be done. To save marketers a headache during this busy period, we have created some top tips to help ensure your marketing campaigns are hassle free for the final burst of activity in December. After all, consumers are ready to spend billions over the festive period (especially online!) so make sure you adjust your campaigns... [...]

Patricio Robles says, “For retailers trying to win in the make-or-break holiday shopping season, no digital channel is arguably more important than email. By some estimates, email drove a quarter of all visits that produced a sale this Black Friday, putting it ahead of organic and paid search and direct traffic. The holiday season presents some unique challenges for email marketers, and there are a number of pitfalls that can dent email campaigns. Here are the seven deadly sins email marketers need to avoid during this period. 1. Sending too many emails The last two months of the year are... [...]

Peter Daisyme says, “With the holidays right around the corner, it’s time to get your online shop in tip-top shape to help sell to those impulse Christmas buyers. With online monsters like Amazon taking up a huge majority of the market, you’ll need to get creative with your online selling methods to take advantage of this influx of shoppers that will be heading to the web to make purchases for their friends and family. Not only that, but you’ll need to make sure your online store is prepared for additional orders, especially if you’re running a brick and mortar store and online shop.... [...]

Sandra Guy says, “The future may hold far fewer and radically redesigned stores, analysts say. Online retailers’ holiday sales increased 15%-16% thanks to strong showings on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but in-store sales for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend declined 4.7%-10%, according to analytics reports out Tuesday. Cyber Monday—the Monday after Thanksgiving-set a record as the largest online sales day ever, with $3.07 billion spent by end of the day, or 16% more than the $2.64 billion spent in 2014, according to Adobe Inc.’s Adobe Digital Index. Thanksgiving Day through Cyber... [...]