Holiday Pulse: Black Friday 2017 Benchmarks

Strong sales on the official start of the holiday shopping season signal online retail sales will meet growth expectations.

Based on preliminary sales data in CJ Affiliate’s network, US and Canadian holiday sales revenue on Black Friday increased 38% over 2016. Consumer electronics, apparel, laptops and home goods were the top-selling items on Black Friday.

Strong Start

Affiliate shoppers took their cue from the many early-release Black Friday deals and started shopping early in the week of Black Friday—Monday (11/20) and Tuesday (11/21) saw YOY orders increase 20% and 24%, respectively. Thanksgiving continued to show its strength as the “warm up” to Black Friday, delivering 41% revenue growth for retailers, most notably in the apparel category.  

Black Friday: Not to Be Beat

These early shopping behaviors did not diminish the impact of Black Friday in terms of sheer revenue and order volume—Black Friday’s revenue was 4x greater than the prior Friday and up 38% overall. Shoppers are transferring the door-buster, deal-seeking mentality to retailers’ online stores, keeping Black Friday alive and well online. Based on November sales performance to date, growth of US holiday sales in the CJ network are on-pace to exceed eMarketer’s US growth forecast for the 2017 holiday season.

Average basket sizes increased on Black Friday by 12% to $152, up from $136 last year. Coupled with a 24% increase in orders and 11% increase in clicks on Black Friday, affiliate marketers this season have demonstrated early-on that they provide a deep reach into holiday season shoppers across many categories.   

Stay tuned for further holiday performance benchmarks of the 2017 holiday season. Next up: Peak Week performance, including Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday. Stay tuned!

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Methodology: Growth values were calculated using same store retail sales tracked in the CJ network through November 24 (Black Friday) and compared against 2016 same day sales. These growth values may alter as additional sales are reported, corrected and/or returns are processed.