The adoption of an extended Q4 promotional strategy this year had a real impact on the YOY growth brands experienced during the Cyber Week sales period.
Year on Year performance for the five-day Cyber sales period, Thanksgiving Day (11/24) through Cyber Monday (11/28), declined 9% compared to 2021. Two factors contributed to these results; first, during the last week of October, when many retailers in the US started to tease consumers with early Black Friday pricing, sales were up 6% YOY, and second, sales volume each year has consistently increased during the first two weeks of November.
Early Promotion Begets Early Shopping
The Cyber days continue to dominate in terms of sales volume, with Cyber Monday experiencing the highest sales volume of the season (again), followed by Black Friday. Yet October 30 in particular was an early-season bright spot for many brands selling sports gear, shoes, and clothing—sales of these products increased an average of 12% YOY on that day. In addition, while US consumer sentiment has been on a gradual decline since last May, partly due to the rising costs of food and other goods, it seems that beauty and shoe purchases are the indulgences that shoppers are continuing to buy. Sales in the Beauty category, for example, were up 31% YOY on Cyber Monday and the category realized an average 14% YOY growth for the entire sales period.
A Few of Our Favorite Things
Clothing, accessories, and home goods have all been high sales volume categories during Cyber Week, but it was the Arts/Photo/Music category that captured shopper interest on 11/27, the Sunday before Cyber Monday. Sales revenue in the category increased 11% YOY (17% WOW), an impressive show of growth on top of last year’s 22% increase for the same day. This performance points to Sundays becoming increasingly valuable for marketers and weekends could be the best time, in what's left of the shopping season, to capture shopper interest.
Travel For the Win
This Q4, global consumers are spending on travel bookings, continuing the strong growth trend in the travel industry. Travel bookings in the CJ Network are up 60% YOY and the volume is coming from travelers all over the world. For example, travel bookings from European-based travelers are up 58% YOY in November, with much of the growth and booking volume coming from German travelers. In the United Kingdom, which is known for its robust travel sector, bookings were comparatively lower, increasing 42% YOY. While examining the big week, Cyber Week was a high-growth period for travel brands. In the US, bookings during the week of Thanksgiving and Black Friday grew 89% YOY—the highest rate of the quarter.
While many are still catching up on the travel they missed over the past two years, traditionally strong retail peaks are translating into equally strong (or stronger) peaks for travel.
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To dig deeper into category-specific performance for each day of Cyber Week, visit CJ’s Q4 Shopping Weekly Benchmarks report.
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