The most wonderful time of the year: Black Friday Cyber Monday 2022 Wrap
Before you start doubling down on preparation ahead of December's Christmas rush, itâs time to reflect on the learnings from the worldâs biggest sale period. Dubbed the âfull-blown shopping seasonâ by Shopify, sales hit a record high powered by an omnichannel experience and deep discounting.
Here, we crack open the data and analysis of Black Friday Cyber Monday 2022.
With Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Cyber Week, and November sales been and gone (but not forgotten), for retail brands involved in the sale events, the aftermath is in full swing. Fulfilling stock, packing orders, archiving customer inquiries, deactivating sale ads and website collateral - and becoming all too well acquainted with the 3pm postal pick-up. You can thank Australia Post who hired around 6,000 new recruits to help sort and deliver customer parcels, including weekends and twilight deliveries.
If it felt like the number of text messages, EDMs, and notifications flowing into your devices was particularly incessant this year⊠it wasnât just you. Not that you need reminding, but even before your brand, store or marketplace embarked on your 2022 Cyber Week sales, an analysis by ANZ revealed Black Friday is officially the busiest time for retail in Australia.
According to Adobe Analyticsâ data, thanks to Click Frenzy and Singles Day, the first three weeks of November online spending hit $64.59 billion with sales topping $2 billion in a single day, nine times during that period. Though this amount was on par compared to the same period last year, rising only 0.1%, it pretty much painted a yellow brick road toward Cyber Week.
Meanwhile on Australian shores, Australian Retailers Association-Roy Morgan got us hyped by forecasting Black Friday sales alone would reach a record $6.2 billion over the four-day period, despite persistent inflation and rising interest rates.
ANZ senior economist Adelaide Timbrell told ABC News that the past weekendâs sales would act as a barometer of consumer behavior for the months ahead, "The strength or weakness on Black Friday will give us some clues as to how quickly households slow down their spending as a result of rate hikes," she said.
Enough with the forecasting - what actually happened? Who came out on top - the retailers? Were shoppers savvy? Did social integrations work? Is Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) still the wallet of choice?
BFCM 2022 statistics
Abode and Shopify report record sales
Adobeâs âgreat revenue revealâ boasts that US 210 billion is the estimated revenue for the entire shopping season (November and December). More specifically, from the start of Black Friday in New Zealand, through the end of Black Friday in California, the millions of merchants on Shopify generated a record-setting $3.36 billion globally. Thatâs a 17% increase in sales versus Black Friday in 2021.
Shopifyâs top highlights include:
Peak sales per minute: $3.5 million USD on Black Friday at 12:01 PM EST
Australia came in 4th in the top 5 countries where consumers spent the most, behind United States, United Kingdom, and Canada, and ahead of Germany
The top selling cities globally for Black Friday included London, New York, and Los Angeles
The top 3 selling cities in the Asia-Pacific were Singapore, Auckland and Christchurch, with Melbourne (4th) edging out Sydney who came in 5th
Average cart price: $102.31 USD or $105.10 USD on a constant currency basis
15%: Cross-border orders worldwide on Black Friday as a percentage of total orders
27%: Growth in POS sales made by Shopify merchants globally over last yearâs Black Friday
Black Friday generates over $9 billion
A record $9.1 billion was spent online for Black Friday, up 2.3% YoY, according to data from Adobe Analytics.
Cyber Monday won the week with $11.6 billion
With further and harder discounting, and merchants capitalizing on sale momentum with consumers back at work, Cyber Monday managed to defy expectations and reach $11.6 billion which is 5.8% more than last year.
BFCM standout trends
1. New online shopping preferences
Ahead of the shopping event, Shopifyâs Black Friday Cyber Monday global research survey revealed that 73% of businesses worldwide were planning for a big Black Friday Cyber Monday weekend this year, despite economic uncertainty.
Additionally, 76% of shoppers globally were looking to spend on quality items that last, and Goldman Sachs backed this notion by confirming there was a focus from Aussie shoppers to buy fewer items and better quality this Black Friday.
The biggest online shoppers are millennials and Gen Z with 75% of Gen Z planned to shop Black Friday sales, according to the Finder survey.