• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, December 11, 2018

Evidence is pouring in that BFCM, as the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend is now known, was a hot one this year — but with some changing patterns.

Discounts no longer rule, so blasting out emails may not work as well. But Cyber Monday had a spike at the end of the day, showing that shoppers browsed on Black Friday and purchased on Cyber Monday, according to BFCM Annual Report, a study by Zaius. 

Zaius writes that “decisiveness is down." 

So emails should be geared to getting people to browse on Black Friday, with a reminder that this may be the time to hit shoppers with email, perhaps with a follow-up on Monday or close to it.

The study found a 7% revenue per purchase on Cyber Monday, a 13.8% increase in revenue on Black Friday, and an increase 12.4% for the entire weekend, over last year. 

And Zaius reports that repeat customers bought 10 times more than first-time buyers.

In addition, 20% fewer purchases were made at full price, compared to 30% last year. And the most common discount that led to conversions was 20%. Overall, buyers are expecting smaller discounts.

In another take on it, ORIS Intelligence reports that there were 901,000 price changes recorded, with 71% occurring on Amazon.com.

The average number of sellers the average brand gained over 50 sellers during the weekend, a 25% increase bringing the total to 258 unique sellers. Of these, 113 were domains, 52 were Amazon sellers.

The downsides? For one, ORIS Intelligence that brands were in violation with 14.4% o their URLs on Cyber Monday. That is 1.3% lower than Black Friday, but 3.4% higher than normal.

What’s next for retailers? New Year's Day.

This year, January 1 had the most engaged mobile users — they made purchases and downloaded new apps, according to Braze.

Braze analyzed marketing app engagement activity of over 3 billion global app user profiles and over 100 billion events on New Years Day 2018.

There was an 18% hike in activity, and 14% more users than on normal days. Moreover, there was a 114% increase in users shopping on New Year’s Day, year-over-year.  

Braze also found that purchases were 56% higher on New Year’s Day, particularly via food and beverage apps. And it saw a 43% increase in first-time app downloads on the day.

Travel, food, chat and dating apps saw greater activity. 

In conclusion, here are some takeaways from Zaius: 

• People were more likely to purchase from familiar brands they love
• Shoppers were more likely to browse throughout the weekend
• Shoppers were less likely to scour the internet for huge discounts