If you took part in the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend, congratulations you survived the flash sale frenzy and we hope you saw an increase in sales and profit! Now that the weekend has passed, we wanted to dive into the data to discover the biggest independent retail trends from the BFCM weekend. Everyone’s talking about the retail giants so we wanted to shine the light on those small and mid-size retailers who also take advantage of the extra traffic and footfall.
Over Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday (US) and Cyber Monday, we analyzed the performance of 1,200 SMB retailers from a wide range of industry verticals. We looked at gross merchandise value (GMV), order volume and average order value (AOV) on a global level, as well as looking at the breakdown by industry and country.
With a mixture of different opinions on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, we weren’t sure what to expect from the statistics this year so without further adieu, here are our key findings…
When did shoppers spend their money?
Over Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday (US) and Cyber Monday, Brightpearl’s independent retailers saw a 20.7% overall increase in gross merchandise value (GMV) in comparison to last year. We broke it down by individual shopping days and found that the US Small Business Saturday event saw the biggest growth with a 23.8% rise in GMV from 2016. It’s great to see such substantial growth from a day that celebrates independent retailers! Small Business Saturday was closely followed by Cyber Monday with a 20.7% GMV increase. Black Friday saw a 16.5% rise in GMV and Thanksgiving was up by 8.9%.
When we took a look at the overall spending across each of the shopping days, Cyber Monday came out on top with Black Friday coming a close second. Interestingly, order volumes were higher on Black Friday than on Cyber Monday but less money was spent on the Friday.
Which industries performed best?
We analyzed the performance of our retailers by industry and Baby & Toddler merchants saw the biggest increase in GMV year-over-year, whilst Apparel, Fashion and Footwear retailers had the highest order volume overall with an 18.61% share of all orders.
Here are the top 5 industries by percentage change in GMV between 2016 and 2017:
- Baby & Toddler: 76%
- Homewares: 58%
- Health & Beauty: 46%
- Apparel, Fashion & Footwear: 44%
- Sports, Leisure & Hobbies: 43%
Did the UK or US dominate?
Our data showed that the US dominated the cyber weekend but it’s hardly surprising with Black Friday and Cyber Monday originating in the US, Thanksgiving being a US holiday and Small Business Saturday only taking place in the US on this weekend. Just in case you’re wondering, Small Business Saturday UK takes place on December 2nd 2017.
When comparing the US and UK performance from 2016 to 2017, the US won across the board as the stats show:
- GMV increased by 39.9% in the US vs 11.9% in the UK
- Average order value (AOV) was up 27.6% in the US vs just 3.3% in the UK
- Order volume rose 9.7% in the US vs 8.3% in the UK
We again took a look at the day-by-day breakdown by country and found that Cyber Monday was the most popular in the US, whilst Black Friday was the most popular in the UK. Remember that Cyber Monday came out on top globally!
We’ve also created this eye-catching infographic so you can quickly digest the key stats! We’d love to hear how you got on over the cyber weekend so let us know in the comments section at the bottom of the blog.
