So Black Friday is already over, and we’re now well into Cyber Monday.
The past few days, online shoppers have been busy browsing through a countless number of online sites in search of the best deals – trust us, we were among this crowd.
Black Friday 2016 Garnered More Than US$3 Billion Of Sales
Adobe is back again with their annual insights on the Black Friday sales.
According to this year’s report, by the end of last Friday, US$5.27 billion was spent online alone. The exact breakdown are US$3.34 billion for Black Friday itself, while US$1.93 billion came from the day before on Thanksgiving.
Of this figure, there was a 33% increase via mobile spending, breaching the billion-dollar mark for the first time at US$1.2 billion.
Here’s some other tidbits that they found.
It’s all about gaming – Nintendo NES Classic, PlayStation VR bundle, PlayStation 4 Call of Duty Black Ops bundle, Nintendo 3DS XL Solgaleo Lunala Black Edition and Xbox One S Madden NFL 17 Console Bundle were all items which were most likely to be sold out.
The most popular products sold were also gaming-related, with the PlayStation 4 being the best-selling video game console, followed by Microsoft Xbox One, along with the huge interest of Pokémon Sun and Moon following its recent launch.
iOS users spent slightly more than Android users – Overall, there has been percentage increases all across the board for conversion coming from tablets, smartphones and computers. Interestingly enough, though, the average order value (AOV) on iOS smartphones (US$142) was higher compared to Android smartphones (US$130).
Huge discounts – Significant price cuts were seen on tablets (averaging 25.4%) followed by televisions, toys and computers. Surprisingly, video game consoles were sold at prices which were 3.2% higher, but that did nothing to affect sales.
Still A Time Of Caution
Following all the drama of the recently-concluded US presidential elections, consumer spending was thought to have taken a bit of a hit.
Fortunately, that was not the case, with the total sales from Thanksgiving and Black Friday seeing an increase all around as compared to 2015.
According to Adobe again, the same period last year only saw sales figures of some US$4.45 billion, where Black Friday alone brought in US$2.72 billion in online sales, which was still a 14% increase from 2014.
Black Friday, though, is traditionally much more than just online shopping, unlike what most of Asia is used to. When combining both online and offline sales, figures can skyrocket to an estimated US$83 billion.
Online sales are also boosted by the fact that spending through mobile phones have been on a steady incline since 2013.
Experts Are Expecting More From Cyber Monday
The same people over at Adobe also threw in some predictions for the last big online sale of the year. For Cyber Monday, they’re touting it to be “the largest online shopping day in history” with an expected turnover surpassing the US$3 billion mark set last year.
I don’t know about them, but Alibaba made that much within an hour during their Singles’ Day sales, with an overall revenue of US$7.2 billion in a day.
So for the claim of “the largest online shopping day in history”, I’d put a disclaimer at the end saying that it’s just in the US (or the west).
I am in full agreement, though, that Cyber Monday will definitely surpass the figures set by Black Friday, and that the total sales figures will definitely be a significant amount.
But you cannot argue the fact that a single company such as Alibaba can single-handedly sell in a single day what it takes a network and collection of retailers all over the US an entire weekend to do.
Picture this, Jack Ma and co. shot pass last year’s Cyber Monday sales figures… in just TWO hours.
What Does It Mean For Us?
What it means for us here in Singapore is simple: Sales galore! And probably the impending doom of our brick-and-mortar stores.
Let’s be real, it is not uncommon to see Tabao-savvy newlyweds basically shipping in their entire homes into their new BTOs.
For a country which is basically at the crossroads of the East and West, online shoppers here are fortunate to be able to enjoy the festive sales periods of both sides of the globe.
That, and the fact that all the recognisable American online retailers are starting to make inroads into Singapore.
We first saw this with electronics and PC retailer Newegg, and with the impending appearance of the great Amazon.com on our shores, the fight for our online dollars will soon be a crowded one.
While there are no official statistics as to how much Singaporeans have spent over the years on sites like Amazon.com on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, judging from what I’ve seen in local forums, it’s a hell lot of money.
Featured Image Credit: South Park