Black Friday - Cyber Monday eCommerce Sales Results Report 2017

Black Friday - Cyber Monday eCommerce Sales Results Report 2017

We’ve been analyzing the technology and economic landscape for a while to help our customers implement marketing plans. Two weeks ago we predicted in an email that this year – 2017 – the Black Friday / Cyber Monday shopping volume was going to be the highest ever. Not “just” because of the trend toward eCommerce overall, but because of the convenience of mobile shopping and the strong macro-economic fundamentals – including everything from GDP growth and low unemployment rate to high consumer confidence.

Well, the preliminary numbers are in and … looks like we were right on target. Here’s everything you need to know about holiday eCommerce results so far – including Black Friday and Cyber Monday (our sources appear at the end of this report).

Black Friday - Cyber Monday eCommerce Sales Results Report for 2017

Any way you slice the numbers, things are looking great for online eCommerce sales this year. Here are the top-level numbers:

  • Thanksgiving Day eCommerce Sales - $2.87 billion
  • Black Friday eCommerce Sales - $5.03 billion
  • Cyber Monday eCommerce Sales - $6.59 billion
    • Cyber Monday eCommerce Sales on Mobile Devices - $2 billion (30% of total)
    • Cyber Monday Online Traffic - +11.9%
    • Cyber Monday Traffic from Mobile Devices  - 47.4% (39.9% phone, 7.5% tablet)

    Important Key Take-Away Sales Results

    Four weeks ago in our Black Friday – Cyber Monday Email Marketing Crash Course, we emphasized the importance of online shopping on Thanksgiving Day. $3 billion proves that point nicely. If you didn’t market to get sales on the holiday itself this year, c onsider taking note for next year. And here’s a bonus pointer … get ready now for more shopping, returns, exchanges, and gift card use on Christmas Day this year.

    Mobile devices are the future and already account for nearly half of all eCommerce traffic. And interestingly, owners of Apple (iOS) devices continue to convert and spend more than Android device users. The average order value on Apple devices was $123, while Android devices clocked in at $110.

    Also of note, these numbers do NOT include the $25 billion racked up by Alibaba.com for “Single’s Day” on November 11th this year – a special shopping holiday in China and Southeast Asia.

    Black Friday – Cyber Monday on the Shopify Platform

    Shopify eCommerce Sales Statistics

    Shopify tracks total sales over the four-day period of Black Friday through Cyber Monday – they often simply refer to it as BFCM for short. Total BFCM sales in Shopify stores reached just over $1 billion this year. The overall volume flow was also significantly higher than last year. In 2016, the peak sales load across the Shopify network was $555,716 per minute. This year the peak load was more than twice as high at $1,138,574 per minute … and that’s a crazy level of added volume.

    Mobile shopping is significantly higher in Shopify stores than on the industry average. This year mobile accounted for 64% of all eCommerce orders in Shopify stores (a 10% bigger share than last year). This is not surprising since Shopify has seen the future and smartly optimized the platform to work great.

    Holiday eCommerce and Shopify – a Global Event

    Importantly, Shopify analytics report that Black Friday – Cyber Monday shopping is becoming a truly global online event with eCommerce sales for the period trending over trend in every major market worldwide. The biggest increases were in South Africa, Spain, the UK, Canda, and Germany.

    For Shopify Merchants, Email IS Still King

    Building that email list is still eCommerce marketing gold. Continuing a trend we’ve seen for several years, email marketing continued to have the highest conversion rate for Shopify store owners. Customer clicking in via email links converted to successful sales 4.29% of the time, on average – topping search, direct, and even social media in converting to actual transactions.

    Market source conversion rates in Shopify stores:

    • Email - 4.29%
    • Search - 3.04%
    • Direct - 2.93%
    • Social media - 1.81%

    The Holiday Season Is Just Getting Started

    There’s still a lot of work to be done – and it’s not time to pop the Champaign corks just yet – but all internet and economic trends are still pointing strongly positive. Current estimates for total online holiday sales across all categories range between $101 billion to $110 billion (a 7% to 16% increase over 2016). That means that as of November 28th, only half of the anticipated eCommerce sales of the season have occurred so far.

    The time is now. If you need any help keeping your eCommerce site working the way it needs to this holiday season, just let us know. We are always happy to help.

    And if you are looking to start your own eCommerce business and want to use Shopify, use this link to get started.

     

    Black Friday - Cyber Monday eCommerce Data Sources used in this report: Adobe Digital Insights | Shopify.com | TechCrunch Single’s Day and Black Friday – Cyber Monday.

     

     

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