Black Friday & Cyber Monday E-Commerce Trends of 2020
The Biggest Black Friday & Cyber Monday E-Commerce Trends for 2020
It’s coming up quick: Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM), that is. These fast-approaching e-commerce frenzies are taking place on Friday, November 27th for Black Friday, following the United State’s Thanksgiving holiday, and November 30th for Cyber Monday. Each year, e-commerce agencies and experts take a look at the year’s tendencies and predict how this high-spending weekend will turn out. With so much having happened in 2020, even the best of predictions are muddy at best.
We talked a little in a past blog about how to prepare for Black Friday. Unfortunately for those running behind, most commerce specialists encourage starting your Black Friday/Cyber Monday planning months ago. While we can’t necessarily deep-dive into how to handle the holiday season, we can give some professional insight on what the holidays will look like. Here are our predicted e-commerce trends for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, 2020.
Buying Behavior
As always, this year’s BFCM will have 18–34 year olds as the biggest spenders. Buying behavior will likely be inversely proportional to age, decreasing as a consumer’s age group increases. As for buying behavior outside of age groups, the trends are looking good for Shopify store owners and e-commerce platforms everywhere.
Buying More
This year’s Black Friday/Cyber Monday will likely be bigger than those in the past, with customers spending a predicted 23% more than in 2019. Most agree that this increased spending is likely because consumers have spent less money on experiences this year — eating out, attending movies, going to concerts, and grabbing drinks — and therefore have a little more saved up. With that said, buyers are likely looking for stores to offer more impressive deals. There’s no encouragement of an “in-store deal,” at least not for most of us, so online ones will have to be stellar!
Buying Online
Buying will be primarily online this year, but you already guessed that, didn’t you? Stores are creating individualised plans for how to handle in-person shopping, but the average buyer is likely to stay home. Why waste precious time seeing if any in-store deals are available — if stores are even open — when shopping from the couch is an option? One middle ground is curbside pick-up and other pick-up options, which we’ll probably see far more throughout this entire holiday season.
Sharing and Reposting
We’ll be honest: consumers love letting others know they’ve been shopping. Black Friday especially is one that often plagues social media in the form of tweets, stories, and more. Without the in-person ability to shop, customers are likely to reduce their FOMO and be a part of the action by posting about their online purchases, most prominently through screenshots. To be a part of this trend, it might be worth encouraging customers to tag you in anything they put up; perhaps a Black Friday surprise gift could be an incentive!
Most Successful Products
Each year, certain product categories reign as number one during BFCM. Black Friday has traditionally been for home goods and clothing, and Cyber Monday for electronics. These long-standing trends aren’t likely to vary too much this year.
Gift Cards
The surprise successful product on this year’s lineup is gift cards. Not a product? Think again. Gift cards are rising as a Google Trend as search queries for them increase, and we’d recommend offering them. Branded and/or store-specific gift cards can be helpful for hitting your marketing goals as the year comes to a close.
WFH (Work From Home) Essentials
“Loungewear” has had a huge uptick since quarantine. In fact, the Google search query for it hit peak popularity in both the US and the UK for the past five years during March and April of this year. As many companies switch to being permanently remote, loungewear such as pajamas, cozy clothes, and athleisure are looking to be shopping staples.
Electronics
Electronics are always big, but semi-related to work from home, consumers are looking to improve home electronics and at-home workstations this BFCM. This is connected to spending more time at home in general, and many families looking to upgrade televisions, gaming systems, virtual learning tools, and similar electronic products as well. There’s also the potential for VR, or virtual reality, to have some success here, though it is a little more niche.
Other Stores Might...
Buyer behavior is one thing; what about seller behavior? Here are some store owner trends you’ll likely catch this Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Offer Better Deals
Like we said, “doorbusters” aren’t available this year, at least not like we know them. Stores will have to do more in order to capture buyers’ attention, and the best way to do that is through heightened offers. It’s best to be prepared to offer great deals, and watch your competitors do so as well.
Bundle Their Products
Offering better deals isn’t an option for all. Some companies are working around lowering the costs of their products or subscription services by bundling available products. This gives companies the chance to make the same revenue on existing products, and only decrease the cost on more high-profit items.
Donate to a Good Cause
2020 has come with a lot of hardship, and certain communities have been more severely impacted by global events. It’s possible that some stores will look to create social good out of their BFCM profits. As we’ve seen, this is a proven tactic for increasing customer retention — so it’s a notably good move during the spending season.
Radiant
As marketing and e-commerce experts, we at Radiant have been helping Shopify clients prepare for Black Friday and Cyber Monday for quite some time now. There’s no telling for sure how sales will go or what consumers will actually do, but we’re excited to see how the holidays play out. Read more e-commerce insights and predictions by continuing to follow along with our blog, and receive personalised help with your Shopify store by getting in touch with our team any time!
