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.

The pandemic accelerated digitization on a global scale, but it also humanized us, as we collectively adjusted to virtual workspaces and events. Our deeper connection to technology – and the rapid improvements of that technology – allowed us to easily create better dialogue, send e-greetings, increase engagement, and shop online like never before. We online shopped live never before. 

But you don’t have to be reminded of that – we all went through it. During this period where we take some time to reflect on our challenges and accomplishments, NetElixir wanted to share our key learnings from working with over 100 retails brands this pandemic holiday season, with some insights from our Founder and CEO, Udayan Bose, into the non-tangibles and the non-digital things we learned this year.

A Note on 2020 from NetElixir’s CEO

I am sure we will forever remember 2020. Unfortunately, given the magnitude of what we have had to deal with during the pandemic, there are residual effects that we expect to roll into 2021. I will also remember 2020 for how much it taught us all. Here’s some of what 2020 taught me: 

• Humility: Matters that may have been considered important felt trivial as the pandemic swept through the world.
• The importance of Prioritization: The pandemic forced us to prioritize what’s important for us.
• We are who we are (the importance of authenticity): The Zoom calls brought our co-workers, clients, partners, and prospects inside our homes. Since every communication was through Zoom, people saw us as we were, not what we wanted to show them. And, this, in my opinion, was one of the biggest positives of continued remote work. It helped humanize our professional relationships. Suddenly it wasn’t a vendor-client or a partner-partner conversation – it was a conversation between two people – a person to person conversation.
• Adaptability: We had to react quickly to the ever-evolving eCommerce landscape, to meet clients and customers where they were, and seize opportunities as they arose. Indecision was costly. Agility and adaptability will continue to be crucial to success in the future.
• It is NOT about me. It is about YOU: The pandemic amplified the importance of a fundamental business truth – every interaction with internal and external customers is always about them and not us. Asking “how can we help” is fundamental to fully understanding and meeting the needs and expectations of others. We need to provide solutions to problems customers are dealing with directly, not what we think they are dealing with. 
• The Importance of Positive Momentum: As a result of numerous initiatives that we undertook, at a very rapid pace to proactively meet the challenges of the pandemic head-on, we emerged stronger together. We kept building on our positive momentum to do better, learn from both what went wrong and what went right, and progress onto the next thing.
• Leaders are everywhere: People just need an opportunity to have their leadership skills blossom. Establishing an environment of continuous experimentation and open innovation and communication inspires everyone to do better, reach higher, and create something bigger than themselves. New leaders help organizations grow further and faster.
• The Importance of taking a pause to self-reflect: Burnout is real. Taking planned breaks from work and slowing down occasionally is important to be able to recharge and tackle a problem with fresher insights. Spending some “me time” is crucial to maintaining the work-from-home flow, while keeping us mentally and physically healthy and capable.
• Thankfulness is an incredible energizer: There is so much to be thankful for this year, I don’t even know where to start. I will just share my favorite quote that I think defines the importance of being thankful:

Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. – Melody Beattie

2020 will soon become history. While we can’t really control the unfortunate loss the pandemic has caused, we can definitely look back on the lessons that we have learned and how we have grown as a human being in 2020. 

From the NetElixir family to yours, we wish you a very happy and healthy New Years!

The post NetElixir’s Farewell to 2020 appeared first on NetElixir.

On Thursday, December 17th, NetElixir partnered with BWG Strategy for our last webinar of the year. NetElixir’s Founder and CEO, Udayan Bose, presented 2021 Brand Playbook: Holiday Insights, Real Time E-Commerce Sales Data, and Digital Consumer Behavior.

Holiday Data

NetElixir’s Retail Intelligence Lab analyzed the holiday e-commerce sales data from November 1st to December 15th, comparing it to the daily data of the same period in 2019 to see the YoY trends and growth. We wanted to see if and how customers continued shopping post-Cyber 5. 

The strong December e-commerce sales numbers helped to boost the total YoY online sales growth between November 1 until now to upwards of 30%. NetElixir saw “explosive growth” after the Cyber 5 holiday concluded, remarks Bose. This first week of December had more than double the growth compared to the same post-Cyber 5 period from any year since 2016. While 2020’s Cyber 5 was more muted compared to previous years, the first 15 days of December saw exceptionally strong growth compared to last year:

Advertisements early in November prompted shoppers to get a head start on their holiday shopping to ensure timely deliveries. October’s Prime Day event – which boasted Black Friday-like deals – may have resulted in the lower-than-expected Cyber 5 growth. As deals continued or evolved in the post-Cyber 5 December (lasting largely until December 6th), consumers still opted to shop at their own leisure.

Cyber 5 Results

Cyber Monday had the highest conversion rate within the holiday season period under study; however, the day also had a lower visitor and buy rate. Those that did elect to shop on Cyber Monday converted quickly, but many consumers were not even shopping or searching online. Cyber Monday’s growth had a slow start, only picking up speed after 3 PM (local time). 

The draw of Cyber Monday may have been a bit diluted this year, as sales largely did not change from Black Friday to Cyber Monday. #BlackFriday had more buzz on Twitter than #CyberMonday at about 2.5X more message volume. Sales may not have been as lucrative on Cyber Monday, leading shoppers to be tired of repetitive promotions.

New products accounted for a large percentage of the Cyber 5 revenue share, as shown below:

“Brands that failed to share something new lost out – people craved novelty,” Bose explains. 

Emerging E-Commerce Trends for the New Year

We are entering a new era of online retail. Some emerging trends extrapolated from this year’s holiday e-commerce sales data are:

Needs Prevail over Wants: The pandemic has led to a shift in buying preferences towards essential product categories (ex. Food and Grocery, Pet Supplies) and currently relevant product categories (ex. Home Furnishings, Home Decor). This, however, is not fixed, as needs and wants are not concretely defined across all shoppers; each individual has their own considered essential items that they will continue to buy and search for. Marketers should curtail their product messages to showcase the utilitarian aspects of their products.

Shopping Fatigue or Lack of Novelty: There are signs that shopping fatigue may be setting in for many categories (like Apparel, for instance) that experienced a YoY decline in both new shoppers and revenue. However, this may also be due to a lack of novelty in promotions and products. Cyber Monday promotions were just a carry over from Black Friday, showing nothing new. Always-on customers want something new, something fresh, or to see a better deal. Marketers should keep rotating sales or featured products in order to keep customers’ attention.

The Latency Challenge: There were more frequent website visits in a shorter amount of time. Shoppers visited websites more frequently (+13% YoY), within a shorter span of time between first visit and purchase (-7% YoY). However, fewer shoppers purchased in the non-essential categories. For example, latency in the beauty category went down by 19% (204 to 166 minutes) between first website visit and purchase. 

Influence of Non-Retail: Milestone events in the non-retail space impact shopper behavior. Bigger events – such as the United States Presidential election – capture shopper’s attention away from online shopping, as well as drive up media costs. Online sales from December 11-14 grew by 70%+ YoY – which may have been influenced by the FDA’s emergency authorization for the vaccine. This positivity spike bodes well for retail sales, as consumer optimism rises, so does consumer spending beyond strictly essential categories.

Agility: Agility is a key differentiator in defining success stories. This was the most volatile holiday season that we have ever experienced. Massive unpredictability in demand made it very difficult for marketers to anticipate changes, forcing them to optimize on the fly. The NetElixir team alone had to execute over 40,000 tweaks between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday for Lenovo’s Google Ads campaigns in order to keep up with the demand fluctuations. Agile marketers are a necessity moving into 2021. 

Your 2021 Brand Playbook

Consumer preferences are continuing to evolve throughout the course of this pandemic. For a full, customized review of how your brand can be ready for the new year, schedule your complimentary consultation with our experts at https://stage.netelixir.com//2021playbook/. 

Convenience

“We don’t think the importance of convenience will diminish. A fundamental question is does your product simplify someone’s life,” Bose explains. Again, each shopper has a unique perspective on what is useful to simplifying their lives. Examine your buyer personas for how you can best simplify their day-to-day lives.

eMarketer projected 7.4 million new digital buyers in 2020. The coronavirus pandemic dramatically accelerated the digital trend – and these new-to-online shoppers are exhibiting their own unique traits and buying patterns. For instance, their average order value (AOV) is about 12% higher than the pre-pandemic shopper and 1/6th of these new shoppers have made 7+ orders in the last 6 months. This shift to digital is a once in a generation phenomenon. Pandemic shoppers are becoming their own category so marketers need to understand these shoppers’ behavior to fine-tune messaging unique to them in order to win them over. 

Convenience is a matter of the ease of online shopping and delivery, as well as the online shopping experience itself. Ensure an easy and frictionless shopping experience to welcome shoppers, new and experienced alike, to your site.

“If you take care of shoppers, if you speak to them in their language, they’re willing to shop with you,” Bose says. 

New Value

The pandemic shopper is a highly value-conscious shopper, both in terms of monetary value and social value. Gen Z shoppers, especially, consider a brand’s mission when considering a purchase. As Gen Z comes into more purchasing power, brands will no longer be able to stay silent on important social issues.

On the monetary side, thriftiness is a driving factor of younger shoppers. Thriftiness becomes a form of self-expression and a value by which individuals define themselves. Consumers are also increasingly able to compare prices and brands as they can easily jump from tab to tab. The resulting trend sees consumers continuing to seek the greatest value from every purchase.

E-Commerce sales saw a spike on November 23rd, as Black Friday promotions started. However, as those promotions didn’t change, growth declined due to stale deals:

Customers expect novelty and continuous changes in terms of products, promos, and pricing.

Give your customers a reason to keep coming back to your site. Understand what products are getting pandemic lift (i.e., skin care products rose 44% YoY and make-up kit sales declined 36%). Priorities and essential items are changing over the course of the pandemic.

Retailers and marketers should ask themselves what unique value are they sharing with their customers?

Always Connected

“Mobile has really really been a game-changer this year,” Bose explains. 

Mobile has had a huge impact on e-commerce sales, as 55% of all Cyber 5 orders came from a mobile device. Digital is an integral part of our life, as the physical and virtual world have blended. The gap between digital and physical retail experiences will slowly disappear.

The era of the always-on consumer is here. Marketers need to meaningfully and responsibly engage their consumers at every touch point.

Retail Trends

Tomorrow’s retailer has to consider today’s retail trends. Modern shoppers look for brands that offer convenience, promote a healthy lifestyle, create new value, know their customer, and have an integrated digital strategy.

The explosive growth of retail service providers will continue and co-marketing opportunities will emerge. Real-time customer intelligence and actionable insights are more critical today than ever before. Data is a must-have as trends, behaviors, and opportunities change so quickly. 

“2020 has been a year where data became 1,000 times more important,” Bose summarizes.

The post Holiday E-Commerce Sales 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.

The post New Webinar: Cyber 5 Results. Insights. Trends. appeared first on NetElixir.

Ensure your brand and products are there for them when they search by creating holiday-specific landing pages.

Packaging Holiday Landing Pages

To increase your chances for visibility on key shopping holidays like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, create targeted landing pages with researched keywords well in advance of the days themselves. Consider creating a separate page for each broader category of product for which you plan to offer a discount rather than a general, blanketed page stuffed with too many deals.

Broaden your holiday SEO content strategy beyond simply the products you have. Package your products into easy-to-navigate landing pages that are catered to specific demographics, key areas rising on Google Trends, and strategic messaging from trending terms and keywords you found success with last year. While this year is unpredictable and uncertain, you did have a winning strategy from last year – expand upon your victories, big and small. 

How can you package your products effectively? Start with your customer personas and target audience. Based on this data, consider segmenting your products by:

• Gender, like “Best Gifts for Him”
• Profession, like “Best Gifts for Teachers”
• Price, like “Best Gifts Below $25”
• Interest, like “Best Gifts for Outdoor Enthusiasts”

See what’s trending and what products you already have that could easily fit into trending categories. Keep your buyer personas in mind, as well, so as not to optimize for customers who aren’t converting to your website.

Once you have your packages neatly tied in a bow, use your product categories to create gift guides and blogs that list out your top selling products remarketed, for example, as Best Gifts for Mom. (If you have customer reviews of these products, even better! Customers love peer reviews. Consider working these packages and testimonials into your social media strategy as well.)

Your Holiday SEO Strategy

Ideally, these promotional holiday landing pages should be made ahead of time. Create pages before the holiday season crunch and use 302 (rather than 301) redirects wherever applicable. This is useful for holiday- and promotional-specific versions of a homepage. This pre-planning is twofold: one, you have time to optimize the pages fully based on your trends and keyword research, and two, search engine crawlers have time to scan and redirect points only during the appropriate time. 

When creating landing pages, consider placing them prominently in top navigation in order to drive traffic from the homepage. 

Drive Urgency for Your Holiday Promotions

Pre-planning your sales serves a third purpose: whetting the appetite of your loyal customers and alerting new customers on what to expect. Early announcements will drive users to your site as they start planning out their purchases and researching ahead of time. Using regular announcements (think once a week starting a month in advance to each day the week of) in tandem with a live countdown on your website will drive urgency in shoppers. 

Your holiday promotional schedule could look like:

• 45 days in advance: Leverage your website calendar, social media, and any emails or newsletters to start driving traffic and garnering interest
• 7 Days in advance: Begin leveraging the above for daily posts
• 1 Day in advance: Make your onsite countdown prominent to focus on your upcoming deals

Download a 2020 Holiday ECommerce Sales Calendar to coincide your marketing strategy with the anticipated high volume sales days.

Promoting your landing pages increases its ranking in SERPS. Beyond sharing the link to social, try writing blog announcements that highlight your product packages and new features of your holiday landing pages. These social and organic posts boost backlinks and generate greater exposure to your existing audience. Furthermore, such blog content, just as the landing page, can be used year after year through simple updates, making it evergreen.

For example, take Royal Caribbean, who has a blog they just add to every year so you can see how their Black Friday deals evolved over the years. Their blog ranks number 2 for high volume term “Black Friday Caribbean cruise deals.”

Your Technical Holiday SEO Checklist

• Start sooner rather than later
• Check your site for any issues that could affect performance
• Study last year’s trends and take note of ones that could be useful for your business this year
• Identify relevant keywords for your niche
• Create landing pages specifically for Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals
• Coordinate SEO with your other marketing efforts
• Track and measure success frequently and adjust your strategy to focus on what’s working

Further Reading

• SEO Content Creation Process
• Amazon SEO
• Real-Time Data on Holiday ECommerce Trends

The post Effective Holiday Promotional SEO Strategy appeared first on NetElixir.

An early start to the holiday season is crucial during this highly competitive year. As customers are prepared to wait and shop around to score the best deals, some brands aren’t limiting their sales days to just the Cyber 5 weekend. Extended Black Friday promotions create longer campaigns that won’t bog down shipping channels. 

One such company – Deciem – is turning their extended promotions into a knowledge-sharing and customer acquisition tag team during their Knowvember campaign. Along with a continuous discount on all products throughout the month, Deciem is sharing educational content to help customers buy smarter. By providing a chance for consumers to conduct careful research on their beauty products, Deciem is hoping to limit post-holiday returns. Earlier sales can make brands stand out more during this highly competitive season. Modern Retail also reports stores like Target and Kohls are extending their online promotions to minimize in-store traffic. Consider offering mobile-only deals or flash sales to encourage customers to shop through online channels. 

Reinventing Black Friday Shopping

This year, we can’t accommodate Black Friday crowds. Many shoppers will turn to online shopping – and NetElixir forecasts an aggregate 30% in online sales throughout the rest of the year. 

In November, NetElixir anticipates a 45% YoY increase from 2019 and a 20% YoY increase from last year in December. As marketers push early sales and shoppers plan their purchases to avoid shipping delays, November will be a stronger month in terms of eCommerce growth. Retail Dive shares Numerator’s survey that 34% of respondents plan to shop in stores on Black Friday, while 90% plan to shop online.

BOPIS and curbside pickup will be hallmarks this holiday season so ensure your Google My Business account, website, and any ads prominently display your contactless shopping options. People want to feel safe in any shopping excursions they undertake, so brands need to prioritize communicating a message of transparency and security to their customers.

In 2019, NRF reported that Black Friday beat out Cyber Monday as the busiest online shopping day. We can expect high sales on Black Friday again as many of the big retailers will be closed on Thanksgiving day, which may prompt customers to shop from the convenience of their homes – a Deloitte survey found that 64% of consumers will choose to shop from home. Ensure your website is updated with the latest inventory count, shipping information, return policy, and sales so that customers know what to expect from you.

The same Deloitte survey also found that 2020 holiday shoppers plan to treat themselves while they shop and will focus on beverages, food, and clothes. Historically, electronics, home goods, and home appliances sell well during Black Friday.

NetElixir’s Holiday Forecast

For the past 13 years, NetElixir has released an eCommerce calendar to help retailers mark important dates they should consider in their marketing strategy. Some key insights from this year’s calendar includes:

• Weeks of November 22nd and November 29th: will account for the two biggest online shopping weeks of 2020;
• Week of December 6th: most retailers will set a cut-off date for guaranteed holiday shipping (delivery by 12/24);
• Week of December 13th: BOPIS commerce will surge and most retailers will lower their digital marketing spend

Black Friday itself will see a very high YoY increase from last year, upwards of 75%. This trend will continue throughout the Cyber 5 weekend. NetElixir also forecasts that the month of November see a 45% YoY increase in online sales, compared to 2019. 

Download your 2020 Holiday ECommerce Sales Calendar now at https://stage.netelixir.com//holidays/. 

Further Reading

• October 2020 Retail ECommerce YoY Insights
• Building Trust and Sizing People Up  
• 2020 Holiday Season ECommerce Forecast

The post Black Friday Retail Strategies appeared first on NetElixir.

Black Friday deals are looming as retailers extend promotions to capture early shoppers and lessen the strain on last-minute shipping. Keeping track of eCommerce trends and online shopping behaviors will help agile marketers capture an opportunity that comes their way.

We see some of the follow trends for October 2020 compared to October 2019:

• Food and Grocery eCommerce is growing at a rate unseen in a few months. While not hitting early March and April numbers from the start of the coronavirus pandemic, people appear to be preparing early for the holidays through triple digit increase in conversion rates, compared to last year.
• Orders by new shoppers are continually growing Y/Y across retail categories. Ensure a smooth transition for these new shoppers with a frictionless checkout experience. Engage new customers with surveys and on social media to understand their shopping experience with your brand.
• Mobile continues to play an increasingly important role in the online shopping experience. Consider offering mobile only deals to encourage impulse buys. Ensure your website has a mobile first approach to create a user-friendly experience.

The year-over-year changes from October 2019 to October 2020 are as follows:

Food and Grocery Ecommerce Trends

• Website conversions jumped 126%
• Transactions soared 70%.
• Average order value (AOV) rose 4%.
• Percentage of mobile orders rose 41%.
• Orders by new shoppers increased 74%.

Apparel Industry Ecommerce Trends

• Website conversions decreased 31%
• Transactions jumped 91%.
• AOV increased 3%.
• Percentage of mobile orders increased  ust 1%.
• Orders by new shoppers skyrocketed 128%.

Gifting Industry Ecommerce Trends

• Website conversions increased 39%
• Transactions rose 36%.
• AOV increased just 2%.
• Percentage of mobile orders dropped 4%.
• Orders by new shoppers rose 29%.

Home Furnishing Ecommerce Trends

• Website conversions increased 7%
• Transactions skyrocketed 63%.
• AOV dropped 3%.
• Percentage of mobile orders soared 172%.
• Orders by new shoppers jumped 64%.

Pet Supplies Ecommerce Trends

• Website conversions increased 2%
• Transactions increased 34%.
• AOV dropped by 6%.
• Percentage of mobile orders rose 12%.
• Orders by new shoppers jumped 60%.

Tools and Hardware Ecommerce Trends

• Website conversions fell 17%
• Transactions jumped 45%.
• AOV increased just 6%.
• Percentage of mobile orders jumped 29%.
• Orders by new shoppers increased 31%.

For a deeper dive into how Prime Day, Election Day, and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic impacted eCommerce and online shopping behavior, join NetElixir’s latest webinar on the Road to Recovery: Real-Time Data on eCommerce Trends + Updated Holiday Season Forecast. You’ll gain insights into:

• Charting a successful path to recovery, starting with a successful 2020 holiday season
• Latest online shopper behavior and patterns across seven retail categories and actionable insights for your marketing mix
• The updated holiday season forecast for November-December with NetElixir’s 2020 Holiday ECommerce Sales Calendar

During the webinar, we will be releasing our 2020 Holiday eCommerce Sales Calendar, which highlights the key online sales days and underlying forces that may have an impact on sales this year. Register now at https://stage.netelixir.com//webinar/. 

Further Reading into Holiday Insights

• B2B ECommerce Search Marketing Case Study
• Get Results with Progressive Web Apps (PWAs)
• 6 Reasons to Have a Blog for Your Business
• 2020 Holiday Season ECommerce Forecast

The post October 2020 Retail ECommerce YoY Insights appeared first on NetElixir.

Halloween 2020 – as every other holiday throughout this year has been – will be its own unique event. The parties may take a different aesthetic and location, but the spirit will be much the same; a consumer survey from NRF shows that:

• 58% of respondents still plan to celebrate Halloween
• 96% still plan to buy candy, 75% still plan to buy decorations, 65% still plan to buy costumes, and 40% still plan to buy greeting cards
• The top three celebration plans are: hand out candy, decorate the house, and dress up

Halloween Haunts 

The Gifting, Home Décor, and Pet Supplies retail categories should perform well this Halloween. An average of 18% of respondents in the survey above noted that they plan to dress up their pets for Halloween. Greeting cards and candy baskets could be a fun gift for consumers to share with loved ones if they can’t party in person – and cards are the only category projected to sell more this year compared to last year, according to a Bloomberg report. 

According to HubSpot, user-generated content is seen as more impactful than influencer-generated content and 79% of people say user-generated content highly influences their purchasing decisions. Consider hosting contests on social media for consumers to show off their pet’s costume, their own costume, their bowls of candy, home décor, and any other spooky product they bought from you. Don’t let Halloween be just one day of celebration, as this year deserves extra attention.

Google search results for Halloween costumes this year shows that Cobra Kai, Dungeon Master, and the Mandalorian are among the top most searched for costumes. Kids are searching for Supergirl and Hocus Pocus, while those with pets are looking for cat taco and pumpkin costumes. Promote popular costumes on your website, but remember to keep your product listing up-to-date with any stock outs.

While displaying your products and reaching your target audience is important, it is equally beneficial to showcase shipping estimates. If your store offers BOPIS or curbside options, be sure to clearly mark that in your advertising, especially as we get closer to Halloween night to capture last minute treats.

Halloween may be scary, but your eCommerce revenue goals should not be. 

More Holiday Insights

• Prime Day’s Impact on Non-Amazon Website Sales
• 6 Reasons to Have a Blog for Your Business 
• NetElixir’s 2020 Holiday Season ECommerce Forecast

The post Halloween 2020: Less Tricks and More Treats appeared first on NetElixir.

Will Prime Day Kickstart the 2020 Holiday Shopping?

The answer is YES.

Amazon has always had an outsized impact on online shopping in the United States. During 2019, Prime Day sales registered an increase of 70%+ from 2018. Also, the impressions continued to grow at 140% for days following Prime Day. Even on Google, the product search impressions saw a 25% increase during Prime Day (with the impressions spiking to 40% during certain day-parts).

Moreover, the other mega retailers like Walmart and Target have announced their online sales events during the same week (Walmart’s Big Save Event starts at 7 pm ET on October 11, while Target’s Deal Days exactly coincide with Prime Day). Online shoppers may find it difficult to miss all these sales events.

After 7 months of pandemic-led shipping delays and product stockouts, shoppers are more likely to do their holiday shopping earlier than prior years. NetElixir believes Prime Day will act as that trigger for the holiday shoppers, thereby kickstarting the longest holiday shopping season ever.

A longer holiday shopping season, coupled with fewer shoppers visiting stores, will drive an explosive growth in online sales in Q4 this year. We estimate eCommerce will account for 25% of all holiday retail sales, up from 16% last holiday season. This amounts to an incremental online sales volume of $50B-$80B compared to the 2019 holidays. 

So, how should the retailers prepare for this mega sales event and ride the wave to kickstart their holiday shopping season?

Recommendations for Online Retailers for Prime Day 2020

• Multi-channel sales will accelerate at a rapid pace. Ensure that your ads are visible on not just Amazon, but also search engines and social media channels.
• Focus on the products that you want to aggressively promote during Prime Day. You may want to think of Lightning Deals and creating a Prime Day Subcategory page.
• Ensure that there is adequate inventory – both for FBA as well as direct fulfillment. Nothing is more painful than losing valuable orders and revenue because you don’t have stock.
• If you are advertising on Amazon, prioritize products that have a higher BUY BOX percentage and go aggressive on Sponsored Ads by opening them up for popular search queries.
• Keep the search and social ad budgets high to tap into the surge in product search volumes. For products sold exclusively from your website, you can run an aggressive search ad campaign highlighting the exclusivity and your Prime Day Offer.
• Prime Day only pricing should be offered to move inventory, especially if there is a lot of remaining stock from Q2 and Q3. Try to activate heavy discounts on any stock that needs to be moved before the end of the year. This data and inventory-clearing will help you plan better for Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals and showcase new products specifically for that time.
• For your Amazon white labelled product: focus on key brand attributes in your ad creatives for brand searches to better help you retain your loyal existing customers. Also, employ retargeting and advance audience targeting (in-market, affinity, and lookalike) to maximize sales opportunities, while showing specific messaging for users across different stages in the purchase funnel.
• Small businesses linked to Amazon should see higher sales this Prime Day due to Amazon’s $10 credit for Small Merchants.

What about if you don’t have an Amazon marketplace? We recommend capturing market share by taking advantage of the surges in search volume. This may not necessarily translate into higher sales, but will boost your traffic as customers comparison shop for truly the best deal. Carefully monitor similar products on Amazon, as unavailability of products during Prime Day can open up opportunities for your products and store to fill the gap. Leverage the exclusivity of your sale and words like “Prime” in your ad copy to entice searchers.

This year’s Prime Day will set the tone for the holiday season; let’s make sure it’s a jingle.

The post Amazon Prime Day 2020 appeared first on NetElixir.