Wonder

Log in

Research Outline

Prepared for Katie W. | Delivered November 5, 2019

Black Friday Marketing Best Practices

Goals

To find out customer behavior and the best email and mobile marking strategies for Black Friday/Cyber Monday in order to help in the preparation for virtualized recommendations intended for brands to strategize around these sales events. Source credibility is limited to white papers, case studies, industry analysis/reporting (in an effort to avoid blogs).

Early Findings

Given the scope of the requested project, and the many different paths that it covers for capturing email and mobile marketing best practices in the retail, travel, and tech subscription industries, we focused on identifying highly credible, relevant data (white papers and credible studies) regarding consumer behavior and email/mobile promotions for this hour of research. We can pursue the other features of the project in additional research.

Consumer Behavior

  • Cyber Monday consumer spending has shown a steady increase: 2014 ($2.6B), 2015 ($3.1B), 2016 ($3.7B), 2017 ($4.7B), and 2018 ($6B).
  • The Amazon mobile app was the most downloaded app during the Cyber 5 weekend, according to a detailed report by Internet Retailer.
  • 2019 Black Friday spending will surpass $12B this year.

Email/Mobile Communications Strategies

  • According to an Ipsos November 2019 white paper, digital advances enabled Black Friday retailers to develop more apps featuring real-time countdowns to launch, stock counts, and buzz/anticipation creation. Some apps also let customers know about wish-list products in inventory and bargain releases.
  • Please note the November 2018 Ipsos Black Friday report is available here.
  • A report by Tinuiti, notes that email is most effective for the holiday shopping crowd when reaching early shoppers and top-spenders. They also note that social media is best used for the under-35 consumer.
  • While not quite a white paper, Shopify put forth a very detailed article that featured information that might be useful. For instance, “Ursa Major of VT sent a ‘free shipping plus a free bar of soap’ offer at 7 p.m. the day after Black Friday to convert subscribers who didn’t open an email on the day of the sale.”
  • Ethan Giffin, founder & CEO of Groove Commerce, suggests pushing email deals early to get the best gains.

Additional White Papers/Studies:

  • McKinsey has also developed an analysis of lessons learned "from the record-breaking 2018 holiday season." This report is specifically geared towards informing 2019 strategies.