Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2019

• U.S. consumers spent $4.21 billion online on Thanksgiving Day 2019 (Adobe Analytics via Digital Commerce 360)
• In 2019, Black Friday turned out to be the second-largest online sales day, reaching $7.4 billion (Adobe Analytics via CNET)
• Cyber Monday 2019 hit $9.4 billion (Adobe Analytics via CNET)
• Spending online on Black Friday 2019 hit a record of $5.4 billion, up 22.3% from 2018 (Adobe Analytics data via CNBC)
• Mobile shoppers spent an average of $197 on mobile orders during the 2019 holiday season, a 17% increase over 2018 (Button research via Digital Commerce 360)
• U.S. shoppers spent $138.65 billion online during the 2019 holiday season, up 13.6% from $122.00 billion in 2018 (Digital Commerce 360)

Ecommerce/Online Shopping

• 71% of US adults said they planned to do more than half of their holiday shopping digitally this year. It comes as no surprise that online seasonal selling increases as people move towards buying online more and more. It has become more convenient and less of a hassle for them to handle. (daVinci Payments via eMarketer)
• 60% of consumers plan to shop less in-store this season due to fear of COVID-19 exposure (Radial survey via MarTech Series)
• Ecommerce is poised to grow 18.0%, following a 14.9% gain in 2019 (eMarketer).
• 44% of respondents plan to shop more online during this year’s Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas holidays compared to last year’s holiday season (Quibit study via eMarketer)
• Walmart Inc., Target Corp., Dick’s Sporting Goods, Kohl’s, Ulta and Best Buy Co Inc. have all recently announced they will close their stores on Thanksgiving Day 2020 (Digital Commerce 360)

Cost/Spending Concerns

• 71% of U.S. consumers say they have reduced their spending in anticipation of a recession or pay loss (July survey by Piplsay via Digital Commerce 360)
• 43% of U.S. consumers who plan to restrict themselves to purchasing only essential items this year (July survey by Piplsay via Digital Commerce 360)
• 47% of Americans say they may need to start saving earlier for Christmas presents, while 16% say they are already saving for the holiday. Almost 10% of Americans say they may even go into debt due to the cost of Christmas this year (The Christmas Company). Those that are already in debt from previous financial issues and have gone even further into it due to the time of year, may want to take a look at the irs fresh start program to see how that can help themselves and possibly get back on track.

Travel, Virtual, Outdoor Gatherings

• 58% of people are not planning to travel this year, up from 49% last year and “equivalent to 31 million fewer travelers” (CNN)
• 51% of Americans do not expect to spend the Christmas holiday with their family this year (The Christmas Company)
• 64% of those surveyed will be wary of planes and trains for some time (Criteo survey).
• The longest Americans would be willing to drive to see relatives for holidays would be 11 hours (The Christmas Company).
• 28% of New Yorkers said they’d feel safer having a virtual Christmas (The Christmas Company).
• Since Coronavirus hit the U.S., more than 75% of those in a survey said they have been in touch with family virtually (“Love in the Time of COVID” survey via WSJ)
• Zoom is the #1 downloaded app in U.S., Europe, and Asia (eMarketer).
• 75% of Americans say that Christmas is the most difficult time of the year to spend without family around (The Christmas Company).
• A Japanese study of 100 cases found that the odds of catching the coronavirus are nearly 20 times higher indoors than outdoors. (New York Times)
• A review of 7,000 cases in China documented only a single instance of outdoor transmission – but it apparently occurred during a long conversation between two friends. (New York Times)

Mobile

• 37% of US adults said they were more interested in mobile app shopping than they were last year (Salesforce via eMarketer).
• Mobile shoppers spent an average of $197 on mobile orders during the 2019 holiday season, a 17% increase over 2018 (Button research via Digital Commerce 360)
• Mobile had a 106% higher CTR than Desktop in 1H 2020 (Bidtellect 1H 2020 Native Report).
• Mobile Engagement increased 35% from February to June 2020, even with the coronavirus pandemic (Bidtellect 1H 2020 Native Report).
• In Q2 2020, Mobile users spent 20% longer on sites per visit after engaging with a Native Ad than Desktop users, and 58% more than Tablet users (Bidtellect 1H 2020 Native Report).

Sales, Shopping

• 39% of shoppers plan to start shopping for the holidays in October into early November, and 30% plan to start on Black Friday/Cyber Monday (Radial survey via MarTech Series)
• 41% of shoppers say they don’t plan to shop any earlier for holiday gifts (Radial survey via MarTech Series)
• Target will kick off holiday sales in October (Target via The Washington Post), while Amazon is considering moving its postponed Prime Day to October (CNBC via The Washington Post)

Work from Home

• 42% of the U.S. labor force now works from home full time (Stanford University via The Washington Post)
  • In 2010, less than 10% of American workers worked at least part time from home, according to the Census Bureau.
• 33% of U.S. colleges and universities will be online-only or primarily online (Davidson College via New York Times)
  • 15% will be a hybrid of online and in-person
• Zoom reported in April that it has 300 million daily meeting participants (Zoom via The Washington Post).

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Charlotte Otremba is Sr. Manager of Communications and Marketing at Bidtellect.