After a week of flooding news around Black Friday – from the industry’s top predictions and getting the most out of shopping ads to maximising your commerce content – the biggest global online retail event of the year has finally arrived (November 23) with targets set to beat last year, discounts at the ready and numerous websites crashes already reported as consumers rush to grab the best retail deals possible.
As the action unfolds, PerformanceIN will keep you up to date with the key takeaways and statistics from around the globe as it happens.
Websites crash once again
As expected, surging traffic of consumers rushed to websites to clench on the best product deals and already a number of retailer websites already reporting crashes, including GAME and Debenhams.
“Unfortunately, retailers haven’t learned from last year’s embarrassing website crashes; Debenhams and GAME both crashed in 2017 and have done so again this year. However, this is hardly surprising; our recent research highlights a worrying picture of complacency amongst the sector’s biggest names, so many more are likely to topple throughout the day,” said Gavin Lowther, head of digital at e-commerce and digital agency at Visualsoft.
Elsewhere, Techcrunch reported earlier this week that Facebook’s ad network experienced a massive outage with advertisers looking to utilise the platform to push their products during Black Friday being severely affected. Currently, as it stands, most of the systems are restored but there is still some intermittent issue that could be affecting advertisers creating and editing campaigns through Ads Manager or API tools.
Global stats from the affiliate world
Affiliate network Awin is once again at hand on reporting the latest Black Friday stats from across the globe, with the first set of results coming in from their Australian team at the Commission Factory. Reports are showing a huge year-on-year growth, including transactions at up by 27.4%, average order value at $136.93, sales value at 39.6% and commission up by 32%. Follow the network’s updates for more stats from around the world.
Meanwhile, mobile sales predictions were at an all-time high ahead of Black Friday and today rings true to the news with the UK leading the way in mobile sales via the network at 45.39% – up from 38.51% in 2017. As of now, 55% of mobile sales have come through smartphones whilst sales globally are at 48%.
Over at TopCashback, the UK cashback publisher is expecting members to spend around £16 million today with £7.3 million already spent whilst saving £1.4 million on top discounts offered by retailers, including Debenhams, Currys PC World, Just Eat and Groupon in just a few hours.
“It goes to show that while many remain cynical about Black Friday, and it is clearly more important than ever to do your research and check you really are getting a good deal, there is a clear demand for lower prices and savings in the run-up to Christmas,” commented TopCashback’s UK director Adam Bullock.
Native advertising on the up
Native advertising platform ADYOULIKE reported a huge uptake in native advertising from retailers in the run-up to Black Friday with a 300% increase in the number of retail brands accessing their premium infeed native advertising supply in the last seven days (Tuesday, November 13 to Tuesday, November 20).
What’s happened to Amazon?
The e-commerce retail giant has not had the greatest of weeks with Amazon suffering a major data breach on Wednesday which saw millions of customer’s names and email addresses being revealed. Despite the setback, the e-retailer has reported record levels of shopping activity in the UK with Awin finding that over 100,000 toys and beauty products were bought via the marketplace by mid-morning.
We’ll continue to update this article throughout the day… share your insights with the team at content@performancein.com