The most wonderful time of the year: Black Friday Cyber Monday 2022 Wrap

Before you start doubling down on preparation ahead of December's Christmas rush, it’s time to reflect on the learnings from the world’s biggest sale period. Dubbed the “full-blown shopping season” by Shopify, sales hit a record high powered by an omnichannel experience and deep discounting.

Here, we crack open the data and analysis of Black Friday Cyber Monday 2022.

With Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Cyber Week, and November sales been and gone (but not forgotten), for retail brands involved in the sale events, the aftermath is in full swing.  Fulfilling stock, packing orders, archiving customer inquiries, deactivating sale ads and website collateral - and becoming all too well acquainted with the 3pm postal pick-up.  You can thank Australia Post who hired around 6,000 new recruits to help sort and deliver customer parcels, including weekends and twilight deliveries.

If it felt like the number of text messages, EDMs, and notifications flowing into your devices was particularly incessant this year… it wasn’t just you.  Not that you need reminding, but even before your brand, store or marketplace embarked on your 2022 Cyber Week sales, an analysis by ANZ revealed Black Friday is officially the busiest time for retail in Australia.

According to Adobe Analytics’ data, thanks to Click Frenzy and Singles Day, the first three weeks of November online spending hit $64.59 billion with sales topping $2 billion in a single day, nine times during that period.  Though this amount was on par compared to the same period last year, rising only 0.1%, it pretty much painted a yellow brick road toward Cyber Week.

Meanwhile on Australian shores, Australian Retailers Association-Roy Morgan got us hyped by forecasting Black Friday sales alone would reach a record $6.2 billion over the four-day period, despite persistent inflation and rising interest rates.

ANZ senior economist Adelaide Timbrell told ABC News that the past weekend’s sales would act as a barometer of consumer behavior for the months ahead, "The strength or weakness on Black Friday will give us some clues as to how quickly households slow down their spending as a result of rate hikes," she said.  

Enough with the forecasting - what actually happened? Who came out on top - the retailers? Were shoppers savvy? Did social integrations work? Is Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) still the wallet of choice?

BFCM 2022 statistics

Abode and Shopify report record sales

Adobe’s ‘great revenue reveal’ boasts that US 210 billion is the estimated revenue for the entire shopping season (November and December).  More specifically, from the start of Black Friday in New Zealand, through the end of Black Friday in California, the millions of merchants on Shopify generated a record-setting $3.36 billion globally. That’s a 17% increase in sales versus Black Friday in 2021.

Shopify’s top highlights include:

• Peak sales per minute: $3.5 million USD on Black Friday at 12:01 PM EST
• Australia came in 4th in the top 5 countries where consumers spent the most, behind United States, United Kingdom, and Canada, and ahead of Germany
• The top selling cities globally for Black Friday included London, New York, and Los Angeles
• The top 3 selling cities in the Asia-Pacific were Singapore, Auckland and Christchurch, with Melbourne (4th) edging out Sydney who came in 5th
• Average cart price: $102.31 USD or $105.10 USD on a constant currency basis  
• 15%: Cross-border orders worldwide on Black Friday as a percentage of total orders
• 27%: Growth in POS sales made by Shopify merchants globally over last year’s Black Friday

Black Friday generates over $9 billion

A record $9.1 billion was spent online for Black Friday, up 2.3% YoY, according to data from Adobe Analytics.

Cyber Monday won the week with $11.6 billion

With further and harder discounting, and merchants capitalizing on sale momentum with consumers back at work, Cyber Monday managed to defy expectations and reach $11.6 billion which is 5.8% more than last year.

BFCM standout trends

1. New online shopping preferences

Ahead of the shopping event, Shopify’s Black Friday Cyber Monday global research survey revealed that 73% of businesses worldwide were planning for a big Black Friday Cyber Monday weekend this year, despite economic uncertainty.

Additionally, 76% of shoppers globally were looking to spend on quality items that last, and Goldman Sachs backed this notion by confirming there was a focus from Aussie shoppers to buy fewer items and better quality this Black Friday.  

The biggest online shoppers are millennials and Gen Z with 75% of Gen Z planned to shop Black Friday sales, according to the Finder survey.  

In terms of spend though, Gen Z planned to spend the second least amount on Black Friday at $365 per person, followed only by Generation X planning to spend less than $345 per person.

2. BNPL still a key payment method

Adobe said that as online spending picked up, consumers dealing with inflation and higher prices are embracing flexible payments.

The higher the total cost, the more likely the shopper is to split the payment. Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) orders for the holiday shopping week rose by 85% compared to last year with an 88% increase in revenues.  

3. In-store shoppers increase

Shopify reported about 32% of people still plan to shop Black Friday deals in person, which is a decrease of 9% from 2021.  

According to Forbes, the companies that track shopper traffic in malls and stores reported significantly more people doing their Black Friday shopping in real-time when compared to last year.

The final verdict came from Sensormatic Solutions, who enable retailers to monitor foot traffic, and confirmed visits to stores were up 2.9% on Black Friday.

4. The omnichannel experience reigns

According to Mastercard SpendingPulse, in-store sales were up 12% year-over-year on Black Friday, while online sales rose 14%, indicating that the push for eCommerce stores to offer a seamless experience wasn’t just due to the pandemic.

Online spending on Black Friday actually smashed Adobe’s expectations, despite malls and retail analysts reporting strong levels of in-person shopping on shopping’s biggest days.

BFCM top categories

Before the event, Shopify found that 40% of consumers were willing to pay more for climate-conscious products.  At the same time, Adobe predicted that electronics, apparel and groceries (yes, you read that correctly) would combine to take online spending this holiday season to $103.8 billion.

Shopify has confirmed the top-selling product categories were apparel & accessories, followed by health & beauty, and home & garden, with top trending products including Hailey Bieber’s Rhode peptide glazing fluid.

The electronics drove a steady flow of consumers, with online sales up 221% over the average day in October 2022.  Smart home items (+271%) and audio equipment (+230%) sold particularly well.  Toys remained a strong category (+285%), while exercise equipment is still going hard despite gyms and studios reopening throughout the year (+218%).

In the US, Morgan Stanley reported Lululemon, A&F banner, American Eagle Outfitters, and Victoria’s Secret banner emerged as the biggest winners this Black Friday, while Hollister, Gap banner, and Banana Republic “were relative losers”. Meanwhile, Abode’s data showed that products to take out the highest-selling titles were Xbox Series X, Bluey, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, Drones and Macbooks.

Well, that’s it for BFCM 2022, now for End of Season!  Moving into December with Christmas shopping in full swing, it's time to take the learnings from your recent store's performance and finish the season strong.

Keen to see how you can best prepare for the end of year sales? Whether you’re an eCommerce manager, or in buying or merchandising, we’ve rounded up the top tips to take advantage of the momentum and enjoy a successful rest of the season.

Main Image Credit: Darrel Hunter