Black Friday 2020: the unstoppable growth of the eCommerce sector continues in Italy as well, and the exciting figures recorded during the lockdown period have been confirmed for the most anticipated shopping weekend of the year.
The forced closure of stores in orange and red zones, as well as that of large shopping malls on weekends, has inevitably pushed Italians to prefer buying online to buying at the traditional point of sale, so much so that Confesercenti Fismo estimated that the restrictions imposed on stores generated, just in Black Week, a competitive imbalance of about 83 million euros in sales per day in favor of the online world.
This is a trend that now seems unstoppable: according to estimates provided by the Netcomm B2C eCommerce Observatory, Black Friday 2020 marks significant growth for the eCommerce world compared to the same period last year, with total spending of €1.5 billion, up 15 percent compared to the same period in 2019.
And while the majority of Italians (61 percent) chose to buy at least once online during the Black Friday period, many took advantage of the offers offered to anticipate Christmas shopping.
But the effect of the pandemic was not only registered in reference to the increase in sales but also in the ways in which Black Friday deals were “reinvented.” In the wake of many large American brands (read Amazon), large players in the Italian market, such as Unieuro, also chose to extend the period of promotions, including days before and after the “black” weekend of the year.
All this, surely, to facilitate, better order management, prevent site slowdowns due to traffic peaks, but also delays in deliveries.
But that if we wanted to go into more detail, what were the trends found in the Italian market precisely in the “hottest” days?
Providing us with interesting data is Blendee’s eCommerce Active Monitoring Observatory , which focused its analysis precisely on the period between November 27 and 30, 2020.
Black Friday 2020: online searches grow and some sectors go crazy
Search volume analyses always provide an interesting picture of users’ purchase intentions. According to data released by Semrush, online searches for the keyword “Black Friday” rose 12 percent in 2020 compared to the same period in 2019, with marked interest in electronics but also fashion.
From Blendee’s data regarding marketing automation activities in the period Nov. 27-30, there are notable increases in turnover for the fashion sector, which marks + 239% in terms of turnover, compared to the same period last year.
If Black Friday proves to be the favorite weekend for those who love to buy clothing and accessories, the gardening and hobbies sector is not to be outdone and confirms the growth trend already shown in the midst of the lockdown, reaching +112% in terms of sales, compared to the same period in 2019, and excellent performance also in terms of online interactions with +165% of page views, +17.4% of product recommendation views and +600% of clicks.
Also very positive were the data concerning the segment of small household appliances, which confirm the passion of Italians for the world of electronics precisely on Black Friday weekend. It is no coincidence that the most searched products during this period of 2020 were precisely the Play Station 4, with keyword “PlayStation 4 Black Friday,” followed by searches with keywords “Nintendo switch Black Friday” and “Dyson Black Friday.”
Specifically for this sector shows +61% in terms of revenue growth.
Some 86 percent of Italians, according to research published by Simon-Kucher & Partners confirmed that they prefer to plan their purchases rather than follow impulse, and here Black Friday weekend showed itself as the right opportunity to anticipate Christmas shopping.
This was confirmed by the growth recorded by the children’s toy sector, which showed a considerable increase in sales compared to the same period last year(+94%), with excellent performance also in terms of online interactions: +82.3% page views compared to last year, +281.4% viewing of recommended products and +81.9 clicks.
Also interesting is the growth of the furniture sector, which confirms the positive trend already seen since the lockdown period: +29% increase in sales, significant data also in terms of recommended product views(+289%) and clicks(+367%).
Less significant, but still ongoing, is the growth in the pharmaceutical and parapharmaceutical sector, which, after the surge seen during the lockdown period, marks +25 percent over the Black Friday weekend compared to the same period in 2019.
Contained, on the other hand, were the results in the online publishing sector, which during Black Friday, marks only +7% increase in sales.
Undoubtedly bucking the trend, however, are the figures for the pet industry, which, after the significant growth seen in the spring of 2020, mark a significant decline in terms of sales (-29%) and number of orders (-33%)
Rather negative data is also reported for the super food sector, which during the Black Friday period, recorded a decrease in sales(-58%), despite an increase in views of recommended products(+139.2%) and clicks (+20.9%) compared to the same period in 2019.
And after Black Friday 2020: how will the online sales of the Christmas season go?
After the further increase in online sales during the Black Friday period, all eyes are now on Christmas shopping.
The spread of the pandemic and the consequent tightening implemented by the government in terms of lockdowns and preventive business closures in many areas of our country inevitably affected the buying habits of Italians, and even the most reluctant then opted to buy online.
According to data published by GFK.com, during the Black Friday period, 61 percent of Italians made at least one online purchase.
And while merchants are confident of an upswing in point-of-sale purchases for the Christmas season, eCommerce is increasingly emerging as an important business choice even for small and medium-sized businesses and an omnichannel strategy-the real key to success.
