While riddled with uncertainty and fluctuating consumer demand, Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2020 saw a significant lift in online sales. Dive into the discounting tactics, product performance and marketing trends used by major fashion retailers in the US.
Covid-19 has impacted the holiday shopping season this year in more ways than expected. Many retailers kickstarted their holiday sales campaign as early as October with attractive offers, further blurring the lines with Black Friday promotions. Despite the influx of deals offered prior to Black Friday, the popular sale event has shifted online, resulting in an increase of 22% YoY to USD 9 billion.
To encourage online purchases, retailers provided safer ways for consumers to shop by offering curbside pickup, shipping to store and same-day delivery. This has resulted in USD 10.8 billion worth of online sales on Cyber Monday, cementing it as the biggest US e-commerce day in history.
This report analysed the performance of Black Friday-Cyber Monday sales this year compared to last year for the women’s apparel categories. Over 500,000 data points were screened from 16th – 30th November 2020 (15 days) in comparison with the same period last year from 18th November – 2nd December (15 days) on these key fashion retailers in the US:
All data used in this report comes from products retailing online as tracked by Omnilytics, unless otherwise mentioned.
Despite the bleak forecast for Black Friday, the start of the holiday shopping season recorded a surge in online sell-out at 74% YoY. All retailers analysed observed increase in sell-out on the e-commerce stores compared to last year. As Covid-19 cases continued to surge, consumers have turned to online shopping, making it the first-ever digitally dominant holiday season.
Higher sell-outs were registered during the Black Friday weekend, before dipping on Cyber Monday to just over 4% (Chart 1). This is a stark contrast to last year’s 8% sell-out rate in a single day.
While all retailers performed better in the online sphere this year, H&M, Urban Outfitters and Shein delivered above average sell-outs. These retailers also observed strong growth in full price sell-out during the discount bonanza.
The success was attributed to the relevant product offerings that met customers’ needs as well as effective marketing activities.
Retailers were more aggressive during Black Friday this year as the discounted products accounted for 62% of total assortment vs. 47% in 2019. This was brought by the surge in the number of first discounts on Black Friday itself, which increased to 17,269 SKUs – a whopping 414% increase from the day before.
While most retailers offered more items on markdown this year, H&M and Shein pulled back on discounting.
Overall, retailers offered slightly deeper markdowns this year at an average discount of 42% vs. 38% in 2019. Shoppers who waited until Black Friday and Cyber Monday missed out on better deals a week prior to the main sale event (Chart 4). This was a stark contrast compared to last year, with Black Friday seeing the deepest discounts. Asos, Urban Outfitters, Gap, and Shein were among retailers that offered deeper reductions during the pre-Black Friday sale this year.
Meanwhile, Fashion Nova, Nasty Gal and Forever 21 were more competitive as they had progressively steep reductions leading up to Cyber Monday.
Analysing the peak period from Black Friday to Cyber Monday revealed products on deeper discounts did not translate into higher sell-outs. Despite 40-49% off being the most common discount range deployed by retailers, higher sell-out rates were observed from the lower discount ranges of 20-29% and 30-39%.
Products offered in the latter discount brackets were mostly comprised of the in-demand pandemic staples – loungewear, sweatshirts, hoodies and roomy dresses. Meanwhile, dressier and more formal products made up the deeper discount range of 40% and above.
Similar to last year, most retailers launched their pre-Black Friday promotions a week before the big day. However, sales were already rampant even prior to the Black Friday warm up. Retailers from Gap to Nasty Gal kicked off their holiday promotions as early as October to avoid the stiff competition online during Black Friday.
Zara was the only retailer that held its Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions on the actual respective days, as it did last year. This strategy did not fare well for the brand as it delivered below average sell-out at 17%.
Retailers sent out frequent email newsletters on attractive promotions to engage with consumers compared to last year. Using time-bound offers to create a sense of urgency was also prevalent amongst retailers such as Shein and Urban Outfitters. The former brand was more competitive this year with its Flash Sale Buy 1 Get 1 99% off and 3 for USD25 promotions.
While consumers were busy scouting for bargains, some brands opted out of the discount bonanza as part of Green Friday to create awareness on more sustainable, conscious shopping. This included Arket, Baukjen, NavyGrey and Hush.
Meanwhile, H&M used this period as an opportunity to give back as part of Giving Tuesday. It partnered up with Billy Porter to support The Trevor Project, the world’s largest crisis intervention organisation for LGBTQ youth. The campaign that ran through December 2, matched consumers’ donations up to USD 250,000.
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