Black Friday 2021: The results of the sale
This year on Black Friday, online sales didn’t hit the record on the exact day but grew “in length”. Even though the highest number of online orders during the traditional sale dates was lower than last in 2020, the period of increased demand was lasting longer – it has been extended from a few days up to a few weeks. Admitad Affiliate has analysed Black Friday shopping statistics and found out that European buyers tended to spend the most money on cosmetic products and clothing. We can also see some new favourite product categories – games and hotels – which have gained much more interest than in 2020.
Global Black Friday results
According to expert estimates, global spending on Black Friday this year slightly decreased – from $9 billion last year to $8.9 billion in 2021. And there’s a simple reason for that: last year in many countries the sale took place during the lockdown. As a result, many shopping-lovers had no other choice but to buy goods on the Internet instead of going to shopping malls, like they used to do earlier. But this year, the restrictions have been eased, and some users chose to enjoy the traditional shopping process. Another reason is that this year many brands and marketplaces not only started providing discounts much earlier before the 26th of November but also promise to keep them after the traditional Black Friday period. This way, the buying activity of users has been distributed over a longer period.
Black Friday for Affiliate marketing experts
At the same time, according to the statistics provided by Admitad Affiliate, the Brits increased the number of purchases on Black Friday 2021 by 72%, and the average value of orders – by 89%, compared to the “calm” period. The average value of online purchases during the sales days has increased by 10% and stands at $46. More than half of purchases were made on marketplaces. In 2021 on Black Friday 23% of online orders in the United Kingdom were made via mobile phones.
Bellow, you can see which categories of goods and services were the most popular with Europeans during the sale this year:
A few industries became more active this year and, as a result, received much more attention on the sale compared to 2020:
It is interesting that almost all the craze for buying furniture and goods for home was satisfied on the Singles’ Day Sale (11th of November). And on Black Friday, this category did not even make it to the list of top-sold categories, although it took first place during the 11.11 Sale 2 weeks earlier. Another big change is having financial services at the forefront, with the average purchase value growing from $13 on 11.11 to $46 on Black Friday
TOP traffic sources
A significant part of users (29.7%) formed their purchasing decisions based on the recommendations of Internet blogs and online media. Another 26.8% of Europeans were attracted and motivated to buy goods and services on Black Friday by lucrative deals of cashback services. 14.3% of purchases were driven by contextual advertising, 6.7% belonged to affiliate shops and Facebook drove about 4.7% of total traffic on Black Friday 2021. The most important part is that the earnings of affiliate marketing experts in the UK in total grew by 81% on this Black Friday.
For many European countries, it is just the beginning of the period of holiday sales. Many brands didn’t finish providing Friday discounts yet, moreover, Christmas New Year’s Day sales with all the users rush are around the corner. The period of high demand will be lasting until the very end of December. And it is crucial for brands to use a wide variety of traffic sources during this hot sales period. And don’t forget about the technical stability of both the desktop website and the mobile sources of sales.
