The month of November continued to see steady growth, with e-commerce sales increasing 9% YoY compared to November 2021, following the 6% increase from October.

We forecasted stronger e-commerce growth this year, as 2022 marks the first true post-pandemic holiday season and people are striving for a return to normalcy. People are celebrating the season with dinners, gifts, and events, leading to an increase in e-commerce sales to furnish the festivities.

Overall, Cyber 5 2022 was stronger than expected”, says Udayan Bose, our Founder and CEO. “Cyber 5 shifted the e-commerce landscape, as some advertisers pulled back on their spend. This allowed others to gain a greater share of voice and engage new customers for a record-breaking Black Friday and Cyber Monday, validating the notion that you shouldn’t cut back on marketing during a slowdown.”

15th Annual Cyber 5 Report

For our 15th annual Cyber 5 report, NetElixir’s Retail Intelligence Lab captured the hourly data across each day from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday and compared sales volume, average order value (AOV), conversions, and more to last year’s data. We captured data separately across 6 retail categories to see how, when, and where customers were searching and shopping. All told, we analyzed over 70 million sessions across this five-day period. (This granular data is made possible through our AI-driven digital marketing platform, LXRInsights, which helps us find and engage high-value customers.)

The central region of America had the highest YoY growth at 15%, as depicted in the map below:

How E-Commerce Sales Grew During Cyber 5 2022

This year, Black Friday had the highest AOV out of the five days. However, Cyber Monday orders contributed slightly more to the overall Cyber 5 orders and revenue. Beauty and Apparel retail categories had the highest YoY revenue growth, at 22% and 16% respectively. 

Overall dayparting was a crucial aspect of this year’s Cyber 5; advertisers were more prudent in where and when they allocated spend to attract and convert customers. Nearly 37% of customers shopped between noon and 6 PM.

Mobile sales accounted for 58% of sitewide orders during Cyber 5. Mobile’s AOV was 25% lower than desktop’s AOV. Most mobile orders came on Thanksgiving Day and the least on Cyber Monday. People were probably trying to place quick, discreet orders while celebrating Thanksgiving dinner, thus relying more on their mobile devices. Mobile also accounted for the majority of clicks across retail categories within our dataset, meaning that people were more likely to research gift ideas and brands’ offers on their phone.

Channel-Specific Cyber 5 Trends

Amazon Trends

Advertisers who offered a holiday-specific deal during Cyber 5 earned a significant boost in performance across all e-commerce metrics, from conversions to sales, compared to brands who did not offer a promotion. AOV increased even with deals, as it prompted shoppers to also buy higher-priced products and order more units per order. The budget-conscious trend we have noticed throughout the year, amid lingering uncertainty and inflation increases, continued throughout the holiday season, as customers aim to secure the best deal available.

Amazon’s Prime Early Access Sale event in mid-October kick-started the holiday shopping spree. We expect that over 35% of Prime customers may have completed their holiday shopping prior to Cyber 5.

Google Advertising Trends

Performance Max campaigns accounted for 48% of paid search orders during Cyber 5. This is a phenomenal stat considering that Performance Max campaigns didn’t exist just ten months ago! Next holiday season, Performance Max could account for nearly all of paid search orders. If there is any hesitancy about using Performance Max campaigns, let this year’s Cyber 5 results remove all doubt; this AI-driven campaign module is here to stay as the default campaign type as Google continues to improve its efficiency. 

We also observed less advertising competition this year compared to last year. Amid the uncertainty or considering the pull of in-store shopping, some advertisers pulled back on their digital spend. This created a tremendous opportunity for brands to gain a greater share of voice and engage new customers during this critical period. 

This year showed a great opportunity to seize significant wins in categories like apparel and gifting since there were fewer advertisers. Incremental investment to win impression share surprisingly fell during Cyber 5 for both categories.

How Cyber 5 Impacts The Rest of The Holiday Season

While a 9% YoY increase in November’s online sales is great news for holiday retailers, the growth is likely to be slower in December as retailers relax their discounts and consumer demand drops. Most retailers offered heavy discounts throughout the month of November to ramp up holiday demand. The benefit of discounts cannot be understated during critical holiday periods to attract and convert customers. 

Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) sales saw explosive increase during November. BNPL is incentivizing incremental consumer spending (and, often, spending beyond your means), so should be used strategically to engage customers.

From this data, NetElixir is maintaining our original 2022 holiday retail sales growth prediction of 7% YoY growth. 

Brands should use the success of Cyber 5 to leverage continued engagement and consider their post-holiday strategy. This is an important time to collect and use first-party data to better understand your customers and their expectations for the new year.

Watch our full analysis now:

Further Reading

• Could We See Cyber 5 Turn Into Cyber 6?
• The 2023 E-Commerce SEO Strategy: How To Stay On Top Of The Search Engines
• What’s Trending? The Importance of Trend Research In Your Marketing Strategy

The post Cyber 5: Results, Insights, and Trends appeared first on NetElixir.

Cyber 5 — the days from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday — remain a crucial period for holiday sales, but the holiday season isn’t just about shopping. Giving Tuesday is rising in prominence, especially as customers respond well to brands that have a strong philanthropic mission. We may see the ever-expanding Cyber 5 evolve into a Cyber 6 weekend in the future. A Cyber 6 weekend would encompass the days from Thanksgiving to Giving Tuesday and promote high online activity that champions gifting and giving.

So What Is Cyber 6?

Cyber 6 may be the next evolution of Cyber 5, expanding the gifting and giving blitz throughout Giving Tuesday. Adding Giving Tuesday to the Cyber 5 weekend will help promote the holiday spirit of sharing joy and compassion for all those around us.

The 2021 holiday season requires a unique strategy in and of itself. However, changes in promotions can be welcomed by customers. Heavy discounts are no longer the only avenue to winning and engaging new customers throughout Cyber 5. We have advised some clients to release new products exclusively on Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Giving Tuesday. On Giving Tuesday, many companies are promoting charity items, of which a portion of proceeds will go to helping others.

Including your customers in promotions (such as letting them vote for the charity you donate to or matching their donations to a specific charity) can go a long way to making the holiday shopping season about more than just a good deal.

Leverage Giving Tuesday’s online traffic to talk about your brand’s own philanthropic efforts and showcase how you give back to the community all year long. 

How the Cyber 5 Weekend Has Evolved

Cyber 5 has been a mainstay in holiday shopping for the past few years, but it continues to evolve in line with the changing e-commerce space, as well as cultural and societal developments. 

Stores used to open early on Thanksgiving. Since the start of the pandemic, more retailers are staying closed on the holiday to allow employees to spend more time with their loved ones. Just days ago, Target announced that it will never again open on Thanksgiving.

Black Friday has expanded beyond a one-day in-store doorbuster frenzy. Now, brands promote early Black Friday deals, with some having teased sales as early as October. Brands promote a myriad of different sales culminating in Black Friday — but even so, Black Friday isn’t always the day of the deepest discounts. Brands have started leveraging lower shipping minimum, limited-time products, and lightning deals on different categories to keep customers clicking and shopping.

Cyber Monday is relatively new, first coined in 2005 as noted by the New York Times. During that time, people typically had a more reliable and faster internet connection in their office than in their homes, so they took the Monday back to work after the holiday to shop online. Nowadays, we don’t rely on our offices for a high-speed connection, but the idea of snagging online sales persists.

What Is Giving Tuesday?

Giving Tuesday is a day dedicated to easing the suffering of others through acts of generosity and kindness. Giving Tuesday started in 2012 as a means to encourage people to do good. These acts of kindness can range from “making someone smile, helping a neighbor or stranger out, showing up for an issue or people we care about, or giving some of what we have to those who need our help,” according to the nonprofit that champions the Giving Tuesday movement.

In a crowded e-commerce space, customers are expecting more from their favorite brands. To earn customer loyalty, companies are committing to values such as sustainability, philanthropy, and giving back to the community, rather than expecting to gain a following exclusively from discounted prices and quality products. Participating in Giving Tuesday is a great way for brands to stand for a social cause larger than themselves and get their customers involved.

Further Insights

We saw a slower-than-anticipated Black Friday this year. Keep up-to-date with the latest Cyber 5 (or Cyber 6) insights with NetElixir. Join our annual Cyber 5 Webinar: Results. Trends. Insights. To learn how your brand’s results compared to your competitors and industry trends. We’ll dive into what these trends mean for the rest of the holiday season and share insights into:

• The search-shop-buy behavior of your holiday shoppers
• Time of day when customers were most likely to complete a purchase
• The role of mobile over the Cyber 5 weekend

Don’t miss out on last-minute holiday tips!

The post Could We See Cyber 5 Evolve Into Cyber 6? appeared first on NetElixir.

See for yourself below:

Day-Wise %YoY Ecommerce Sales Growth (Thanksgiving to Sunday)

YoY Cyber 5 results from Thanksgiving Day to Sunday 2020 compared to 2019 within NetElixir’s dataset.

This Cyber Monday may go down in the history books as (arguably) the most important online shopping day in 2020. To learn the full results of Cyber Monday’s performance and the category-level insights, join NetElixir’s 2020 Holiday Cyber 5 Webinar, LIVE on December 3rd at 2 PM ET. 

Observations on Cyber 5 Trends 

• The Food, Pet Supplies, and Home Décor retail categories are experiencing a pandemic-led boost in sales with massive YoY growth. The eCommerce winners have continually shifted ranks as the demand surge ebbs and flows through this highly competitive holiday season.
• However, evergreen holiday categories like apparel are continuing to struggle. Even regular gifting categories are experiencing lower than expected growth as shoppers are preferring to buy gift items with a stronger utilitarian value. CNBC reported that shoppers want to feel more connected during this holiday season and so are seeking out personalized, thoughtful gifts. 
• Consumers are carefully researching and analyzing the cost of each purchase much more than in prior years. Your website should be fully optimized with your deals prominently displayed to let shoppers know exactly what to expect.  Shoppers have not been as attracted by the regular promotions retailers were running on Thanksgiving and Black Friday.
• Creativity in sales, advertising means, and campaigns will truly be the mark of success during this highly competitive holiday season. Unique promotions will help win back shopper excitement.
• Opportunities are fleeting, but a 24/7 monitoring of search campaigns will drive further revenue growth.
• There is a fair amount of pent-up demand. In-store sales are radically down, which should have diverted demand to online channels. However, as online sales have not been as high as anticipated, it may be an indication that online shoppers are still hunting for more attractive deals. Retail Dive reported that, among Gen Z shoppers, 71% were waiting for Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals because they were shopping on a tighter budget this year.

There is so much more to unpack during this truly unique Cyber 5. For the full results, insights, and trends and what the real-time data means for the remainder of the holiday season, join our 2020 Holiday Cyber 5 Webinar, LIVE on December 3rd at 2 PM ET. Register at https://stage.netelixir.com//webinar/.

The post Anticipating Cyber 5 Results appeared first on NetElixir.

Since 2008, NetElixir’s Retail Intelligence Lab has been aggregating and analyzing the live search-shop-buy data for top holiday retail categories. On Thursday, December 3rd, we will be hosting a live webinar to share the hot-off-the-press results, insights, and trends from the five key retail days of Cyber 5. Join our live webinar to learn the impact of 2020’s Cyber 5 weekend and what our analysis means for the rest of the holiday season.

Cyber 5 of Years Past

The 2019 holiday season was unique in that it held 6 fewer days between Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day, meaning retailers had to sell 20% more online, every day, to match 2018’s revenue. They largely succeeded. The results, insights, and trends of the 2019 Cyber 5, compared to 2018, in terms of eCommerce sales per region were:

• The western area of America grew over 19%.
• The central area of America grew 21%.
• The northern area of America grew 25%.
• The southern area of America grew the most at 28%.

The average order size (AOV) on Black Friday was $120 in 2019. The lowest AOV was on Sunday, at below $80. Additionally, 44% of 2019’s Cyber Monday orders came after 6 PM (local time).

Mobile shopping continued to grow in 2019, as the share of mobile search impressions, as well as orders, experienced a sharp increase during the holiday season. However, on Cyber Monday, more shoppers placed orders through their desktop rather than mobile device, especially between 6 PM and midnight (local time). 

In 2019, Text Ads drove more orders than Shopping Ads at an order ratio average of about 65% Text ads to 35% Shopping ads.

There were more checkout interruptions in 2019 compared to 2018. Exit rates from the checkout page increased marginally compared to 2018 across most categories. This may have been caused by shoppers getting swayed last-minute through more attractive offers from competitors. This year, especially with a higher rate of new-to-online shoppers acquired during the pandemic, ensure your checkout experience and online shopping experience is user-friendly. Display promotions and inventory updates prominently and offer channels for customer support. 

Last year, Thanksgiving Day yielded 13% of the total Cyber 5 online orders, up from 11% in 2018, as shown in the charts below:

VS

Could online sales on Thanksgiving Day exceed 15% of all Cyber 5 orders this year?

Predictions for 2020 Cyber 5

At this year’s Cyber 5: Results. Insights. Trends. webinar, NetElixir experts will go over the same region-wise, daypart, and YoY eCommerce trends and online shopping behavior patterns to see how 2020 holiday sales are progressing. NetElixir forecasted a 45% YoY growth in November and a 20% YoY growth in December for an aggregate 30% YoY growth in online sales. 

Retail Dive, in a survey on Gen Z’s shopping behavior, found that 71% of respondents will be relying on Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals to make the most of their tighter holiday budgets. Additionally, CNBC reported that shoppers are seeking out personalized, thoughtful holiday gifts to feel more connected during the pandemic-influenced holiday season. Homemade, DIY gifts and cooking could be the hallmark gifts this year.

From totaling the eCommerce metrics of the days leading up to Cyber 5 (November 1 – 23, 2020) and comparing them to the same time span in 2019 (November 2 – 25), NetElixir’s Retail Intelligence Lab has so far found:

• Website sessions increased over 25%.
• Orders increased over 20%.
• AOV increased 13%.
• eCommerce Sales increased over 37%.
• The western area of America has seen an 81% increase in revenue growth.

Only time will tell what 2020 Cyber 5 has in store for us. Register now for NetElixir’s annual LIVE Cyber Five 2020 Webinar: Results. Insights. Trends.

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