• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, March 14, 2022

Many upbeat studies have come out purporting to tell what occurred in marketing last holiday season. But what really happened?

Email volume rose -- so did the number of orders. But conversion rates fell, according to Post-BFCM Analysis Shows That Sales Went Up, Even As Conversions Dropped, an analysis by Omnisend, published in MarTech Series on Monday. 

The analysis shows that average conversions declined by 3.8% for promotional emails and down by 36% for automated emails.  

Why did automated emails show such a drop?

It could be that “an increase in automated emails indicates an increase in user behavior, which implies that users really began hunting for good BFCM deals on November 22, the Monday before Thanksgiving,” writes Bernard Meyer, director of content and research at Omnisend. 

It also could mean that “they are more likely to add an item to their cart and abandon it, hoping for a good discount, rather than signing up directly for your newsletters,” Meyer says.

Yet it pays to remember that while automated messages (including SMS) accounted for only 5% of total sends, they pulled 31% of all orders. And sales went up overall. 

Black Friday produced the highest email conversion rate: 0.16%. Cyber Monday generated 0.12% -- a 3.8% drop from the same period in 2020.

Meyer offers this email takeaway: “When looking at the behavior of 'hunting' for deals (abandoning carts in the hopes of a convincing discount), we can see that customers are much more aware of BFCM promotions, and they will bounce around looking for the best deal.”

The study, which is based on an analysis of client data for the Black Friday-Cyber Monday weekend, also shows a 47% spike in promotional messages via email, SMS and push notifications.

In addition, there was a 90% lift in automated messages, producing 28% more orders. 

Average conversion rates fell 22% for promotional SMS,. But increased by 6% for automated SMS. 

However, conversions plummeted by 54% for promotional push messages. Yet automated push drove a 47% increase in conversions.