Topic of the week – 2023 Peak Season Recap – Black Friday and Christmas Review
As we near the end of Q1, enough time has passed to look through all of the data and recordings from last year’s holiday period. In this week’s market update we will take a look through the trends, takeaways and challenges faced in 2023 to see how you can prepare for the 2024 holiday period ahead of time. Using the latest figures from IMRG and SheerID’s 2023 Black Friday and Christmas Review, let’s take a look at the performance of the eCommerce market and key audiences from 2023.
Let’s start by looking at the overall performance of the holiday period. After a slight increase between 2021-2022 Black Friday week performance was down 1.9% YoY during 2023, with the Tuesday of that week and Cyber Monday the only days performing better YoY. Cyber Monday saw 5.6% YoY growth whilst the day of Black Friday was down 3.3% YoY. With Black Friday deals being introduced throughout the whole month of November, it could be possible that consumers are burnt out on deals, or have scooped up what they wanted before Black Friday even comes around.
Overall the month of December saw a decline at around 4.3% YoY compared to 2022 which marks the third year in a row that December performance has fallen. Whilst both the first and second week of December saw a decrease in YoY performance (Wk1: -9.5%, Wk2: -6.5% YoY) the third week of December saw a positive spike at 10.3% YoY revenue growth, indicative of last minute panic buying before Christmas day. Interestingly the week commencing 24th December was down 12.8% YoY showing consumers opted not to participate in Boxing Day sales as much as prior years.
The main contributing factor that led to these results would be the current cost of living crisis. Consumers are more conscious when it comes to their online spending and making larger purchases ahead of Christmas may have led to hesitancy which is why the week leading up to the big day saw the highest growth. As customers waited around for better deals or discounts they were forced to make their purchases that they had been holding out for last minute. The cost of everything has increased, forcing consumers to become more selective, valuing quality over quantity and the longevity of products especially that comes with bulk buying. Whilst the Average Basket Value of customers increased, reaching £144.08 in 2023, the Average Conversion Rate of these sales continued to decline YoY, sitting at 4.09%.
Finally, whilst the clothing sector experienced the steepest decline at -9.6% YoY, followed by the Gifts category, the Electricals and Health & Beauty markets experienced solid growth with Health & Beauty outperforming all other categories in 2023 at 7.6% YoY growth. This could again be attributed to the cost of living crisis, as consumers have less money to spend on clothing and are prioritising more essential and practical purchases and present ideas over the holiday period.
In other news
Australian courier, Sendle, has expanded its network by adding 865 pick up points across Australian suburbs. The company enable small businesses to ship internationally and have now expanded their footprint by 40% by implementing more pick up locations across 3,000 Australian suburbs.
eCommerce Market Stats
See some statistics relating to this week’s topics in the eCommerce market below.
2023 Peak Season Stats
- ‘Selected Products Up To’ was the most popular discount type in 2023 at 43%
- Discounts between 50-60% off were the most popular deals offered by retailers in 2023 at around 51%
- The average share of revenue from Buy Now, Pay Later transaction options increased in 2023 at 9%
- 53% out of 295 retailers started their Black Friday campaigns earlier in 2023, with data indicating that 81% of retailers made more revenue from launching longer campaigns
*Statistics sourced from IMRG Black Friday & Christmas Review 2023
That’s all for this week…
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