Black Friday e-commerce revenue hits new heights – but how high?

11/28/2022

Black Friday online spending hit new records.

While two major holiday e-commerce indices agree that online Black Friday sales broke records, they split over just how much consumers spent.

According to the latest Adobe Analytics figures, Black Friday online spending totaled $9.12 billion, up 2.3% YoY. Meanwhile, Salesforce tracked even more impressive e-commerce performance results during Black Friday. According to Salesforce, U.S. online spend on Black Friday rose 12.1% YoY to $15 billion in the U.S. and 3.5% to $65.3 billion globally.

On Black Friday, Salesforce data reveals that online order volumes grew 6% in the U.S., the greatest growth in order volumes all week and suggesting consumers were placing more orders this year, not just spending more money due to inflation.

Abandoned cart rate was down 9% on Black Friday compared to the previous three weeks, Salesforce said. The average online discount rate was 30% in the U.S. and 27% globally.

Adobe and Salesforce also both provided analysis of retailer performance during Black Friday weekend (Nov. 26-27). On Saturday, Nov. 26, Adobe Analytics data reveals that consumers spent $9.55 billion online, up 4.4% YoY, followed by $4.96 billion on Sunday, Nov. 27, up 6.1% YoY.

According to Salesforce analysis, during Black Friday weekend online sales in the U.S. rose 10.2% YoY to $17.2 billion, and 3% globally to $73.9 billion.

Adobe expects Cyber Week (the five days from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday) to generate a total of $34.8 billion in online spend, up 2.8% YoY, and represent 16.3% share of the full November-December holiday season. Adobe also analyzed online sales performance on Thanksgiving, Nov. 24, determining consumers spent a record $5.29 billion online, a 2.9% YoY increase.

Season-to-date (Nov. 1 to Nov. 27), Adobe Analytics has tracked consumers' online spending at a total of $96.42 billion, up 2.1% YoY. Since Nov. 1, online shoppers spent over $2 billion every day, with 19 days above $3 billion in online spend. According to Adobe, broad, early discounts were the main drivers for this shift in consumer spending.

Other Black Friday weekend findings from Adobe include:

Online sales of toys climbed 383% (compared to average daily sales for the category in October 2022), with baby toys seeing strong demand (up 252%). Other categories that surged over the weekend include jewelry (up 230%), sporting goods (up 239%), and apparel (up 217%).
Smartphones drove over half of online sales for the first time (52%, up from 48% in 2021). Adobe expects mobile shopping to dip on Cyber Monday, however, based on historical trends which show many online consumers shop from work using laptops.
Curbside pickup was used in 15% of online orders during Black Friday weekend at retailers which offer the service. This is down slightly from 18% during the same weekend in 2021. Adobe does not anticipate a major uptick in curbside pickup on Cyber Monday. However, Adobe expects curbside pickup will peak from Dec. 22 to Dec. 23, right before Christmas Eve, accounting for fulfillment of 35% of all online orders.

Additional Salesforce analysis indicates that mobile accounted for 78% of U.S. digital sales and 79% of global digital sales, with social accounting for 12% of all mobile traffic referrals both in the U.S. and globally (22% increase from 2021).

“Online traffic and sales continued to gain momentum throughout Cyber Week, buoyed by U.S. consumers, who snagged great deals on Saturday and Sunday,” said Rob Garf, VP & GM of Retail at Salesforce. “We anticipate retailers continuing their aggressive discounting approaches on Cyber Monday as they make the final push to move inventory and free up cash.”

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