Black Friday used to be synonymous with shopping mall stampedes. Customers would line up outside the shop the night before it opens and then run in like crazy when it does. This year is different, though. Shoppers didn’t wait outside. Instead, they shopped online the whole week and purchases peaked during the night of Thanksgiving as shown by the data gathered by Salesforce. This is the first time that mobile purchases topped online Thanksgiving purchases.
No More Waiting
Shoppers got ready early before the Thanksgiving Cyber Week and retailers prepared to meet their demands. An 11% rise in traffic to digital sites was recorded in Thanksgiving day and shoppers did not just browse as generated revenue increased by 18%. Marketers also did their homework as noted in the 159% increase in push and SMS notifications as well as 26% increase in marketing emails.
68% Mobile Shopping Traffic
In order to avoid friction, more shoppers used their mobile phones to do their shopping. Mobile phone visits recorded and all-time high of 68% of digital traffic during Thanksgiving. This is 6% higher than the previous year showing that more and more people are getting comfortable shopping through their mobile phones. It was also noted that most shoppers started browsing and purchasing after Thanksgiving dinner. Mobile usage started to go high at around 4PM then peaked between 8 and 10PM that night.
41% Increase in Social Traffic
For discovery and inspiration, shoppers seemed to turn to social networks. An incredible increase of around 41% was noted in traffic from social channels. These aren’t just plain browsing. They were checking out and sharing merchandise that are selling hot. These brands and products generated buzz just before the holiday and were on top of the shoppers’ minds during the online mobile shopping craze in Thanksgiving.