With another action-packed Cyber Week behind us, let’s review what the pinnacle of shopping had in store for both eCommerce and traditional retailers. From purchasing trends impacting buying behavior to unbeatable deals and month-long sales, each year the Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday spectacle incrementally evolves and morphs, while marketers try their hand at appealing to the needs of consumers alongside economic drivers and buying backstops.
What We Saw
Known in the industry as Cyber Week or Turkey 5, the Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday shopping period beat Adobe forecasting expectations and set a new record with revenue up 7.3% YoY at $38 billion in total consumer spending. This puts 2023 gains in line closer to 2021’s numbers (source).
General Overview:
Better Discounts Incentivize Buying
Better Discounts Incentivize Buying
Shoppers held out for deals with reports indicating a 30% discount needed to incentivize early buying.
Inventory Refinement
Inventory Refinement
Retailers course-corrected to more focused inventory this buying season, following last year’s market glut.
Prices Jumps
Prices Jumps
Salesforce reported that SKUs per catalog were down 3% while pricing was up 4% YoY
Leveraging Buy Now, Pay Later
Leveraging Buy Now, Pay Later
Adobe showed a record high buy now pay later (BNPL) up 42.5% from 940 million in 2022.
Drop in Foot Traffic
Drop in Foot Traffic
National Retail Federation reported modest growth up 1.9% with Google reporting a 3.4% YoY decline in foot traffic.
International Purchasing
International Purchasing
Shopify analysis indicates 15% of SMB shipments on Black Friday crossed international borders with the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada as the top recipients.
Industry Insights
Industry wide, revenue was up on each individual day of the Turkey 5 with an overall increase of 7.3%:
2023 YOY Turkey5 Revenue Increase
LP Specific Cyber Week Data
Our team outperformed industry benchmarks with LP clients seeing an average 7.7x ROAS over the Turkey 5. Increasing AOVs offset rising CPCs for most clients and Meta showed strong YoY growth, with increased ad loads, and cheaper CPMs.
Search
Revenue growth increased by 29% YoY
Conversion Rates increased by 19% YoY
$45.11 million generated in client sales revenue
Social
Revenue growth increased by 36.3% YoY
Conversions increased by 55.5% YoY
$20.19 million in total client revenue generated
9.3 aggregate ROAS across all accounts
35% of client total store revenue attributed to email marketing
$2.68 average revenue per campaign recipient
$4.7 million generated in Turkey 5 client revenue.
Amazon
23% increase in Average Order Value YoY
10% increase in Conversion Rate YoY
10% decrease in ACOS YoY
$2.3M in client revenue generated
The Wrap Up
The playing field between buyers and sellers is continuing to even out and while Cyber Week remains the predominant force in the shopping world, consumers continue to evolve. Early offers might have been able to grab buyers, but clickbait-y deals did not hold. While retailers have wisened up and closed the supply-chain gap, we still advise holding budgets until their final ship dates, and then resuming aggressive spending on the day after Christmas through the first week of January. Nevertheless, once the shopping season has concluded, we recommend a full account-audit to unpack the results and opportunities for stronger insights and benchmarks to grow from.
