Once regarded as the main event in online retail, Cyber Monday appears to be receiving more than just friendly competition from the latest phenomenon to hit UK shores – Black Friday.
Inspiration from its huge impact on the US market has encouraged British retailers to jump on board with announcing offers and discounts on the Friday following Thanksgiving. Cyber Monday, or the Monday after Thanksgiving, is a slightly older tradition on home soil and is also known as a key shopping date for online stores.
However, analysts were backing Cyber Monday to have less of an impact on retail this year as a result of increased store and consumer participation in Black Friday, which is the earlier event.
Seeing an opportunity to pit the two key dates against each other, Affiliate Window has released an infographic detailing peak shopping hours and publisher trends for both days in 2014.
Between 12:00 – 13:00 was pinpointed as the biggest window for sales during Black Friday this year (November 28) as the network tracked 21,788 transactions off the back of 316,014 visits to the group’s 1,400 advertisers.
Cyber Monday (December 1) was more of an evening event, as proved by the key sales gap of 21:00 – 22:00. But a slightly lower set of figures for transactions, hitting 21,395, and traffic, frozen at 220,159, led Affiliate Window to state that Cyber Monday has conceded its position as the “jewel in the retail crown”.
For a rundown of the publishers driving these figures and more, consult with the infographic below.