Think the run up to Christmas is the peak for retail and eCommerce sales? Think again.
Seasoned search marketing professional Simon Jacobson of Bing has been examining the numbers.
December’s traditional peak in sales has now been usurped by an American import, as Black Friday (followed closely by Cyber Monday) has helped to create a peak in sales in November.
Now the peak sales period for eCommerce businesses, Black Friday has become the single biggest shopping day in the UK eCommerce calendar.
In fact, seven out of ten top retail active days took place in the last week of November 2016.
‘Manic Monday’ is also a key day for online retail. The second Monday of December is traditionally seen as a last minute postage day for Christmas delivery (which is no longer the case in the age of Amazon Prime), and hurried last gift purchases.
This year, for the first time, online spend is set to trump high street spend on Black Friday, according to Deloitte.
Rain = Revenue
Black Friday and Christmas spending aren’t guaranteed, however. Weather doesn’t just affect high street shoppers. While adverse weather can keep shoppers away from bricks and mortar stores, mild winter weather has a similar effect on online shoppers. Taking a closer look at 2016’s mild Christmas weather, Simon highlights a lack of morning spikes, attributing it to shoppers putting down their phones and getting outside, while an overnight storm helped to push an early morning traffic spike.
These key findings highlight the importance of being agile and understanding how external factors may affect customer searches and behavior.
First click to final click
How long do you look before you buy? Bing has discovered a 21-day search journey for the average customer. From initial query to research to purchase, a typical user will make 10 searches, with the greatest number of searches in the consumer decision journey being for clothing and accessories.
25% of the UK’s searches are currently made on Bing as use has increased with the adoption of Windows 10. Bing also syndicates with Yahoo, AOL and Gumtree, so the network is rife with advertising potential.