2012 Holiday Sales are off to a strong start with Black Friday Online Sales registering a Y/Y increase of 31%.
Our findings are based on Black Friday sales data aggregated for 38 large US online retailers (in 7 retail categories representing 120 million search impressions). NetElixir uses proprietary search marketing analytics technology, LXRRetail, for data aggregation and analysis.
Summary of the findings:
- YOY Sales Revenue driven by Search Advertising increased by 31%.
- Mobile devices accounted for 15% of total online sales (driven by search).
- Search Advertising Spend (includes mobile) increased by 21% YOY.
- Average Cost Per Click (includes mobile) increased by 12% YOY.
- Average Order Value registered a marginal increase of 3% over last year.
- Average Number of items in the shopping cart went up by 8%.
Category Level Black Friday YOY Data:
| Category | YOY Sales Revenue Growth (%) | YOY Search Advertising Spend (%) | YOY CPC Increase (%) | YOY Average Order Value Increase (%) |
| Flowers & Gifts | 22% | 24% | 17% | -2% |
| Apparel | 33% | 19% | 12% | 5% |
| Consumer Electronics | 28% | 25% | 15% | 1% |
| Food & Drugs | 35% | 16% | 8% | 4% |
| Home Furnishings | 30% | 19% | 8% | 4% |
| Pet Supplies | 25% | 15% | 7% | No change |
| Home Improvement | 32% | 25% | 10% | 2% |
Key Insights:
Thanksgiving is a major online sales day now: The Black Friday Search query and sales spiked between 9am ET – 12 ET on Thanksgiving Day and then again from 8pm ET.
More items per purchase, however, AOV was fairly flat: This was an interesting trend and we can only hope this does not indicate a slower than expected post Black Friday sales.
Mobile devices accounted for 25% of all searches for consumer electronics: The increasing popularity of mobile devices for searching (and also buying) makes it imperative for every retailer to adopt the best practices for mobile search – have a mobile website, build targeted mobile campaigns and treat this as a unique channel (rather than bundling this with regular search).
% of Overall Black Friday purchases between 6pm and midnight declined from 45% (2011) to 37%: This is an especially interesting observation. Normally, shoppers visit stores during day time.. return home during evenings and then purchase online (especially between 9pm – midnight). This year a higher percentage of all Black Friday purchases happened before 6pm (compared to previous years)… are we observing a shift here? Could mobile be driving this shift?
Here is the table (% of total Black Friday numbers between 6pm ET-midnight ET)
| 6pm ET – midnight ET | ||
| 2011 | 2012 | |
| % of total site visits | 32% | 31.50% |
| % of total site orders | 45% | 37% |
We will be releasing our Black Friday and Cyber Monday Data Analysis & Insights whitepaper on Wednesday, 11/28.
– Udayan Bose
