Holiday Spending: Using Black Friday Weekend Data Wisely

As the end of the year approaches, there’s a lot of talk around holiday retailing. Black Friday. Cyber Monday. When speaking to retailers, executives, and consumers about the holidays, one topic keeps coming up: e-commerce sales. Everyone wants to know what the top products were during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, how much did consumers spend overall, and how it compares to previous years — answers that Particl is happy to provide!

Trends in retail spending

Conventional wisdom holds that this past Black Friday was the biggest shopping day in history. But a close look at the numbers reveals that conventional wisdom is wrong. Not by a little--by a lot.

This year, consumers spent less on Black Friday and Cyber Monday than they did in 2020. Why? More brick and mortar shops opened their doors in response to the emergence of the Covid-19 vaccine, prompting consumers to get back to in-person shopping. Additionally, many retailers began their sales earlier. From November 1st to 29th, consumers spend $109.8B online, which resulted in a 11.9% increase from 2020. The sales are starting earlier, and are not limited to one weekend. 

Though online sales may have decreased in 2021 from 2020 ($9.0B to $8.9B), there was still a 20.3% increase in online sales from 2019 to 2021, showing there is no sign of slowing down for e-commerce sales. 

Because so many people are now doing their shopping online, we expect to see Cyber Monday continue to grow in influence and importance; we also expect to see more retailers shifting their focus to include the whole weekend to one big sale, instead of dividing it by day.

Top selling products Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2021

The top trends in retail from Black Friday in 2021 to the following new year, according to Adobe, were as follows:

1) Toys: Nerf Toys, Hot Wheels, Paw Patrol, and other children items 

2) Video Games: Just Dance 2022, Mario Party Superstars, FIFA 22

3) Electronics: Airpods, Apple Watches, Apple pencils, laptops, Nintendo Switch and Switch Lite

Competitor's top selling products Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2021

So far we have gathered that consumers are switching to online shopping--that's obvious. We know what types of products are selling well during the holiday season. But how much of that info is directly related to your business? That's where Particl comes in.

When considering where to focus your efforts, it is always important to look at what your competitors are doing. One great way of doing this is with data from Particl, which gives you an instant snapshot of how much your competitors are selling and what their top selling products are.

Particl can help your company plan holiday marketing efforts including product placement, sales, and promotions by using competitor data to help drive decisions.

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