• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, December 8, 2017

Bing Crosby’s White Christmas is again pouring out of radios. It's time to look back at Black Friday and the week around it.  

Movable Ink, which powers content personalization within emails, recorded 438,760,191 email opens between the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday. And people read them. Of the emails sent, 49% achieved read lengths of 15 seconds on Black Friday and 46% on Cyber Monday. 

On both days, 26% of the emails had read lengths of 3-15 seconds. And 25% had lengths of 0-3 seconds on Friday, compared with Monday.

Overall, consumers spent the most on Cyber Monday — $141, compared with $124 on Black Friday, $120 on Saturday and $119 on Sunday.

Most emails were opened on smartphones — some 53%. In contrast, 25% were opened on desktops and 16% on tablets. But that doesn’t mean smartphones were the leader in conversions and money spent.

Email conversions totaled 53% on desktop, 38% on smartphone and 8% on tablets. And smartphones came in last in spending -- consumers spent an average of $162.15 on desktops compared with $106.50 on tablets and $84.98 on smartphones. 

“This year, we saw an increase in smartphones being the first touchpoint for consuming content and offers, but conversions were still happening on desktop computers,” says Vivek Sharma, CEO of Movable Ink.

Sharma adds: “This is a clear indication of the need for further improvements in mobile commerce and also underscores the need to create a consistent and seamless brand experience across all devices to keep shoppers engaged and ready to purchase."

Sharma’s conclusion? "The pressure is on for marketers to do two things: raise their mobile game and create a seamless experience across devices."

Happy holidays to all.