Black Friday Statistics: Everything You Need For 2023

Whether you’ve already planned your Black Friday marketing strategy, it’s never late to check some of the essential Black Friday statistics!

But why do you need to check these stats? Well, using data is always the best approach to improving your strategy, whether it focuses on email, SMS, social media, in-store marketing, and so on.

As Jeff Weiner once said, “Data really powers everything that we do.” So with this in mind, we collected some impressive Black Friday stats you need to know, including:

• Online shopping stats
• Retail store data
• Shopper insights
• Black Friday email statistics

Let’s begin!

How Was Black Friday 2021?

Like 2020, last year’s Black Friday still favored online shopping. The reason was the pandemic that has forced consumers to limit their in-store purchases due to large crowds and safety measures.

More specifically, according to 2021 stats, retailers noticed some significant changes:

• Black Friday weekend foot traffic was down 21.7% compared to 2019
• On Saturday, traffic was down by 17.6%
• On Sunday, there was an 8.1% decrease from two years ago.
• Compared to 2020, Black Friday weekend traffic was up by 34.2%.

These data only show a small portion of what happened to retailers after the emergence of Covid-19. The pandemic influenced the holiday shopping season, significantly impacting retail sales. This led many retailers to take their brick-and-mortar businesses online to benefit from the rising online shopping trend.

For 2022, Black Friday trends highlight the following:

• businesses will start their deals earlier and extend them even after the Black Friday weekend
• use of multichannel marketing to attract customers
• greater focus on customer support
• use of more sustainable packaging

Now, let’s look at some impressive data, starting with 9 Black Friday online spending statistics.

Online Sales Stats

Ecommerce store owners came across a surge of online shoppers in 2020. Last year was the most profitable Black Friday and Cyber Monday season for most online businesses.

Here are the most important online sales statistics to consider:

• Collectively, Shopify store owners made $5.1 billion. That’s a 76% increase in sales year over year (YoY). – Shopify
• In 2020, Black Friday spending reached $9.03 billion, $1.63 billion more than in 2019. – Adobe
• The 2020 holiday shopping season was the biggest in Amazon’s history. – Amazon
• 44% more shoppers chose eCommerce over in-store shopping compared with 2019. – National Retail Federation (NRF)
• This year, 59% of consumers between 18 and 44 want to shop online. – Sitecore
• 65% of marketers believe that eCommerce brands will dominate the sales landscape in 2021. – Sitecore
• 25% of American shoppers will shop online because they think they’ll find better Black Friday deals. – DriveResearch
• Black Friday and Cyber Monday will surpass $10 billion in eCommerce sales. – eMarketer
• Thanksgiving weekend sales have increased for online retailers generating more than $5 billion between 2013 and 2019. – Nosto

As eCommerce is on the rise, businesses need to have a solid digital marketing strategy with tactics focusing on seasonal shoppers and their pain points.

Retail Store Sales Statistics

Walmart, Best Buy, Target, and Kohl’s were the most popular retailers for 2020 Black Friday shoppers. And while 2020 was the year of eCommerce, consumers still chose to visit retail stores despite health and safety concerns.

Here are the most prominent Black Friday statistics from the retail sphere:

• 46% of shoppers prefer buying from brick-and-mortar stores due to the unique feeling they get. – Deloitte
• 73% of consumers also go to physical stores to find special deals and get the best season offers. – Deloitte
• Best Buy, The Home Depot, Lululemon Athletica, and Peloton were some of the retail businesses that had the biggest holiday season sales. – eMarketer
• 2020 Black Friday retail sales fell 20% compared to last year. – Adobe
• Online retailers, though, had a 21.6% increase in sales, making it the second-biggest figure of all time. – Adobe
• The US holiday season retail sales were more than $1 trillion. – eMarketer
• Both small businesses and large retailers had a sales boost of 545% and 573%, respectively. – Adobe and Magento Commerce
• For 2021, it’s predicted that many retailers will offer special deals starting as early as October. – TheBlackFriday.com

The impact that Covid-19 had on retail sales makes it clear that business owners need to adopt tactics that will allow them to operate even when their doors are closed. The solution is to embrace digital retail marketing strategies like creating emails, posting on social media, and working with influencers, especially during holidays like Black Friday!

Black Friday Email Marketing Stats

The majority, if not all, of online stores, will promote their special deals through various means. The most popular is email marketing! Ecommerce businesses and online retailers tend to send converting email campaigns to target their shoppers, giving them irresistible offers, discounts, and coupons.

Below, we’ll see some Black Friday statistics to help you out with your Black Friday email marketing strategy. Let’s see:

• The number of emails sent on Black Friday 2020 reached 116.5 million. – Campaign Monitor
• Email marketing has the highest average order conversion rate compared to channels like Direct, Search, and Social. – Shopify
• Cart abandonment campaigns have a 34% open rate and a 9% click-through rate during the holiday. – Sleeknote
• Order confirmation messages presented a 60% open rate and a 9.83% CTR. – Omnisend
• Black Friday campaigns have an average 12% open rate, a 1.3% unique click rate, 11% click-to-open rate (CTOR), and an 8.8% conversion rate. – Data Axle
• Email campaigns with “$ off” messages had the highest conversion rate at 14.8%. – Data Axle
• Ecommerce marketers can make seven times more the order rate with SMS compared to email campaigns. – Omnisend

Black Friday and email marketing are a combo you should leverage to boost your seasonal sales. Here are 15 Black Friday email examples from popular online stores and some tips to inspire you for 2021!

Also, if you need help creating your seasonal email campaigns, you can use an email tool like Moosend to craft the perfect sales campaigns! All you need is to sign up for an account and hop into the email editor!

Mobile Vs. Desktop Statistics

Mobile shopping has become more and more popular as customers are slowly turning into mobile-first users. More specifically, Adobe’s Cyber Monday data showed that mobile represented 51.4% of site visits, with smartphones holding 43.6%. Nevertheless, while mobile is rising, desktops and laptops are still going strong.

Here are a few Mobile vs. Desktop Black Friday statistics you need to keep in mind:

• During the holiday season (Nov-Dec), 40% of revenue came from smartphones. – Adobe
• Desktop has an 11% conversion rate compared to mobile devices, with a 5-6% conversion rate. – Criteo
• Mobile searches for “____ brands” are rising, e.g., “makeup brands” increased by +150%. – Think with Google
• Between 2018 and 2019, the average number of pages viewed declined by 4.37%, whereas the average time spent on them dropped by 8.33%. – Nosto
• 66% of Shopify sales occurred on smartphones and tablets during the 2018 Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend. – Shopify

As you can see, mobile devices are a big player for holiday shoppers. Online stores and retailers can benefit from SMS marketing more than ever to increase their revenue and incentivize shoppers to purchase.

Top Selling Black Friday Products

When it comes to Black Friday shopping, each year has its top product categories! Consumers seem to favor premium items at better prices, from consoles and jewelry to Apple’s famous AirPods and Watch. Below, you can see the most searched products by the number of online searches in 2020:

And here are a few things to consider for 2021:

• Nintendo Switch was the most popular Black Friday 2020 product, surpassing PS4. – Statista
• Amazon’s top five best-selling products during Black Friday and Cyber Monday were all technology items. – House Beautiful
• The top three product groups in 2020, accompanied by the word “Black Friday, “were the keywords “Laptop, TV/Smart TV, and Microwave.” – Semrush
• In 2019, the top-selling category in Europe was Cosmetics with a percentage of 36.34%, followed by Fashion and Accessories (32.30%). – iUseCoupon
• The highest sales index in the EMEA region was Computing/High Tech, peaking at 373. – Statista
• Black Friday 2021 is expected to be different from previous years due to numerous shortages due to the pandemic, causing a high demand/low supply phenomenon. – Tom’s Guide

Black Friday Shopper Insights

Holiday spending presents very different patterns based on the age group shoppers belong to.  Apart from age, other demographic criteria that can influence a purchase include your shoppers’ gender, profession, interests, and even location! The difference between Gen Z shoppers, Gen X, Baby Boomers, and Millennials is quite evident in the following graph:

Let’s see some Black Friday statistics about consumer spending:

• Millennials were the biggest Black Friday spenders, with $509.50 on Black Friday purchases in 2019. – PYMNTS
• Adults between the ages of 26-35 are the group with the highest purchasing potential. – Iowa State University
• 42% of Gen X buyers ( 40-55) and 40% of millennials (25-40) took advantage of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL). – PYMNTS
• 49% of shoppers claimed that free shipping was one of the biggest reasons for purchasing during Black Friday. – National Retail Federation
• 31% of consumers favor in-store purchases on Black Friday, influenced by the shopping excitement of the day. – Deloitte
• 94% of Millennials planned to spend $11 billion on electronics compared to Baby Boomers, who wanted to spend almost the same amount ($12.2 billion) on travel. – Finder via SpendMeNot
• 50.4% of women are Black Friday shoppers. – Mvorganizing
• Consumers spent an average of $312 in 2020, compared to 2019, which was $362 per person. – Washington Post

Black Friday Interest By Country

The US is a big Black Friday player, with consumer interest and online searches growing by 34.13%. Nevertheless, despite being an American holiday, other countries presented an increase in Black Friday interest. Below, you can see an analysis by Semrush with the YOY 2020/2019 growth in searches for different countries.

According to the findings:

• There was a 14% growth of interest in global searches.
• 2020 was the biggest year for Black Friday searches.
• Brazil had the highest percentage of interest at 47.63%, followed by Australia with a 34.39% YoY growth.

In a different study, Criteo tried to discover the top product categories for each country, measuring the daily sales for retail stores. Here are the most important Black Friday statistics to consider:

US

• Sales in Athletics had an increase of +153%.
• Books, Music, and Clothing accessories sales doubled.
• Changes were observed on Duvet Covers and Mattresses with a +111% and +108% increase, respectively.

France

• Televisions had an impressive increase of +1089%, followed by vacuums with a +606% rate.
• Electronics remained a top category in retail sales.
• Clothing and accessories also had high percentages, ranging from +221% to +425%.

Germany

• Scarves and Shawls had the highest increase with a +412% rate.
• Off-season items like swimsuits also presented a +131% increase.

Netherlands

• Shoes were the top category with a +299% rate.
• Clothing sales tripled from last year.

Russia

• Major apparel categories had the most significant increase, with Shoes reaching a +269% growth rate, Dresses a +203%, and Coats & Jackets a +200%.

Spain

• Spanish consumers also favored clothing products, with Shoes spiking at 494% and Shirts & Tops increasing by +222%.

Black Friday Vs. Cyber Monday

Black Friday might be the biggest sales day of the year. However, Cyber Monday sales stats have shown that consumers will spend more on that day compared to Black Friday.

In an overview by Statista, Cyber Monday has the biggest sales increase between 2018-2019 compared to Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Small Business Saturday.

In addition, according to Black Friday vs. Cyber Monday stats, Black Friday sales reached $7.4 billion, whereas Cyber Monday accounted for $7.9 billion. While the difference isn’t so big, it shows that consumers were fond of Cyber Monday deals, investing their money in various products.

Here are a few more things from the same source that reveal that Cyber Monday is a very successful online shopping event:

• Cyber Monday 2020 peaked at $10.84 billion in sales ($2.94 billion more than 2018), making it the biggest sales event in the US.
• Social media traffic was up 16% in 2018 on Cyber Monday.
• Average spending was $472 for Black Friday and $415 for Cyber Monday.

In 2021, Cyber Monday was very successful as consumers took advantage of eCommerce deals. This is mainly due to the recent pandemic preventing Black Friday shoppers from going to physical stores.

Black Friday Statistics To Help You Succeed

Knowing the most important Black Friday and Cyber Monday stats will help you improve your seasonal digital marketing efforts, from your email campaigns to your social media endeavors.

As you’ve noticed, Black Friday is a holiday affected by the recent pandemic. Nevertheless, that didn’t mean that the sale of 2021 wasn’t successful. As consumer trends change, businesses must adapt their marketing and sales strategies to respond to change more effectively.

So, whether you have an online business or a retail store, taking a moment to learn about the sales stats and trends of the previous years will work in your favor.

Now you are ready to rock this year’s Black Friday! Go!