Record breaking retail spend around Christmas has become an annual event, but for the first time in the UK, Black Friday outdid not only Cyber Monday, but also Boxing Day. Retail websites racked up more than 156 million visits on Boxing Day, a 20% year-on-year increase, putting the finishing touches to what has proved a record-breaking festive period for retail.
However, for the first time in seven years Boxing Day was not the busiest online retail day of the year, because of Black Friday. UK shoppers showed they have truly embraced this originally American sales day with an estimated £810 million spent in a single day. This has been a learning experience for many brands, with early, heavy discounting impacting strategy for the rest of the Christmas period and putting strain on logistics and websites as visitor numbers spike for limited-time deals.
Clearly, retailers need to take learnings from 2014 and consider them carefully for this year. Here’s a breakdown of the whole Christmas period according to data from Experian:
Black Friday
Black Friday (November 28) was the biggest winner as UK shoppers flocked online to snap up deals after a huge marketing push by brands to raise awareness. Despite several major websites crashing there were more than 180 million visits to retail sites on Black Friday, a remarkable 40 per cent increase compared to 2013.
Cyber Monday
Cyber Monday was also a record-breaking day with just over 160 million visits to UK retail websites, and an impressive 40 per cent increase in online activity adding up to an estimated £720 million worth of festive spend. Much of the deals on Cyber Monday were a continuation of Black Friday deals and in many cases offers stayed open until later in the week.
Manic Monday
The newest addition to the pre-Christmas sales frenzy also experienced a significant increase in attention this year. With approximately 149 million visits and an estimated £666 million spent on Manic Monday, this was a 23.3 per cent increase on last year.
While this was less than both Black Friday and Cyber Monday this could be because Black Friday promotions extended into Cyber Monday meaning there is the potential that the performance of Cyber Monday was inflated by the success of Black Friday three days before.
What this means for retailers
The success in the run up to Christmas 2014 shows how much the American pre-Christmas sales dates have taken root in this country. The impressive figures can be attributed to the huge marketing effort brands have put into pushing the Black Friday agenda and the sophisticated techniques that have been employed such as personalisation and cross-channel marketing.
In a very noisy period of shopping activity like this the right marketing approach is a must, and this really hinges on understanding consumer needs and behaviour in the run up to Christmas. Retailers need to carefully plan discounts and not push big sales too early.
With the 20% year-on-year increase in website visits on Boxing Day rounding out a record breaking Christmas period in 2014, it demonstrates that shoppers are very motivated by seasonal sales – more than ever before. This means that retailers need to think carefully about their discounting strategies both pre and post-Christmas to ensure that they are making the most of consumer interest.
You can guarantee that due to the level of their success, these dates are now a mainstay of the UK retail calendar and retailers will put even greater emphasis on their marketing in future years to get an even larger slice of the pie.
