How successful were brands in their 2017 Black Friday campaigns?
Each year, online retailers make new records during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping period. 2017 is no exception. ContactPigeon, a marketing automation platform for 200+ eCommerce brands, recently analyzed over millions of emails and eCommerce transactions for a sneak peek into how Black Friday 2017 has shaped up. The most interesting insights were summed up in an infographic.
Key findings include:
- Online sales are record high: +14% revenue increase, compared to same 24-hour period on Black Friday 2016.
- More retailers are using email for Black Friday: +11% overall increase in total volume of emails sent on Black Friday 2017, compared with Black Friday 2016.
- Email marketing is still strong: Email alone as a channel makes up 23% of sales attribution on Black Friday 2017.
- Desktop is (still) the Black Friday king: Despite the growing mobile usage, the majority of the open and order conversions takes place via PC and Mac desktop. 51% of all Black Friday orders are made on desktop platforms, with average click rates of 43% and conversion rate at 7%.
- Android on the rise: On devices, Android tops iPhone this year in terms email consumed and conversions. 21% of the emails are open on Android devices compared to 17% on iPhone.
- Emojis are not game winners: Two-thirds of Black Friday emails contain emojis in their subject lines. However, use of emoji alone doesn’t ensure higher conversion to sales. In fact, sales email without emojis shows a 1.5x higher conversion rate than the ones that contain emojis.
- Most active hours for shopping online this year are 10am, 9am, noon and midnight (12AM Black Friday). Order conversion rates are 4.8%, 4.1%, 4.0% and 3.3% respectively.
Key Trend = Marketing Automation
Email marketing has been around for many years and its penetration as a marketing tactic is undisputable. However, as competition increases, the necessity pushes retailers to evolve and step into “next generation” email marketing, thus investing in Marketing Automation and personalization. The sales conversion for triggered emails, such as abandoned cart and browse reminders, delivered during Black Friday 2017 was 3 times higher than standard newsletters.
You can find the full report here