Black Friday 2014 beats Cyber Monday 2014 in Sales

Black Friday is by far the biggest online shopping event of the year according to new analyst sales data.

Black Friday is the new Cyber Monday in 2014. Adobe has now released the 2014 Digital Index Online Shopping data for Cyber Monday and we can compare it to their Black Friday report.

Cyber Monday 2014 generated $2.65 billion in sales, barely topping Black Friday 2014 which generated $2.4 Billion. Black Friday online sales did though also take place on Thanksgiving Day which adds another $1.33 billion to the Black Friday 2014 online sales.

Next year the Black Friday single day online sales will beat Cyber Monday because it is growing faster. The Black Friday online sales grew 24% compared to last year. Thanksgiving Day online sales even grew 25% year-over-year. Cyber Monday only grew by 16% compared to Cyber Monday 2013.

Black Friday had based on our analysis by far the better deals compared to Cyber Monday. Retailers are not just offering their doorbuster deals in stores, but also online. This makes online shopping on Black Friday very attractive.

Cyber Monday needs new inspiration going into its 10th anniversary year in 2015. Cyber Monday needs more dramatic deals that get consumers buzzing similar to the hype around the Best Buy $199 50-inch Panasonic and the matching deal from Amazon.

The Key Findings of Cyber Monday 2014

Total Online Spend: Consumers spent $2.65 billion online on Cyber Monday, a 16 percent growth year-over-year (YoY). Shopping reached its peak between 9 and 10 p.m. ET. The top 25 U.S. retailers (brick-and-mortar and online-only) saw 25 percent YoY growth. Smaller retailers increased online sales by only five percent. Between Thanksgiving Day and Cyber Monday, total online sales came in at $9.6 billion, a 20 percent growth YoY. The season’s total, between November 1 and December 1, rose 14 percent YoY to reach $37.9 billion.

Shopping Trends: Consumers were able to get the best deals with discounts reaching 23 percent on average during early morning hours. By the end of the day the average discount climbed by two percentage points to 21 percent. Online shopping occurred mostly outside of work hours (54 percent), with 41 percent coming in after 6 p.m. ET even at elevated price levels.

Mobile Trends: Smartphones and tablets continued to drive sales. Nineteen percent of total online sales ($328 million) were driven by mobile devices, flat compared to last year. Smartphones and tablets drove equal shares with iOS devices generating 79 percent of total mobile sales.

The Key Findings of Black Friday 2014

Total Online Spend: Consumers spent $32 billion online so far this season, a 14 percent growth year-over-year (YoY). Both Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday saw double-digit growth in online sales, 25 and 24 percent respectively. The increase in sales was driven by brick-and-click retailers, who saw the biggest jump YoY with nearly 30 percent. Online sales conversions also improved. 3.2 percent of visits resulted in a completed shopping cart, up from 3.14 percent in 2013. The average order value was $149 on Thanksgiving Day, and $142 on Black Friday. The number of people choosing to order online and pickup in-store rose to 45 percent above normal on Thanksgiving Day.

Mobile Trends: Smartphones and tablets continued to drive online sales. 29 percent of sales on Thanksgiving Day came from mobile devices, up from 21 percent in 2013. Mobile devices drove 27 percent of sales on Black Friday, three percent more than last year. The share for smartphones rose to 13 percent and almost doubled compared to seven percent last year. The share for tablets only increased slightly to 16 percent from 14 percent in 2013. iOS users drove four times as much mobile sales revenue as Android users, 79 and 21 percent respectively.

Best Deals: Between Sunday and Monday before Thanksgiving the average online price fell 5.5 percent, 0.5 percent more than forecasted, representing the highest price drop in a single day in 2014. Thanksgiving Day saw the lowest prices online with an average discount of 25.2 percent, 1.2 percent lower than in 2013.

Impact of Social Networks: The average order value (AOV) for sales coming directly from social networks was led by Facebook with $114.45. Pinterest came in second with $93.20, and Twitter drove online sales of $90.74 on average. Pinterest saw the largest YoY increase in AOV, up 16 percent. Facebook (seven percent) and Twitter (five percent) also saw slight increases. Two percent ($74.6 million) of purchases came directly from social media sites, which is flat compared to 2013.

Singles’ Day Surprise: For the first time, Singles’ Day let U.S. retailers start the holiday shopping season earlier this year. Online sales on November 11 set a new record with $1.29 billion, a 16 percent YoY increase, and close to online sales on Thanksgiving with $1.33 Billion. Singles’ Day is expected to grow faster than Cyber Monday and become one of the top five days with the lowest online prices this season.

Top Gifts: Social media buzz continued to be an early indicator for top gifts. 4K TVs saw the biggest jump in social buzz month-over-month (MoM) with social media mentions for Sony and Samsung increasing 350 percent. Fitbit led the wearable device category, which had 100,000 social mentions on Thanksgiving and Black Friday while iPhone 6 continued to lead in the smartphone category.