The year 2021 has been dubbed by many as the year of maturity and consolidation of the eCommerce industry: after the exponential growth in online shopping recorded in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the world of online sales, in the past few months, has in fact not lost ground, despite the gradual reopening of stores.
Here, then, attention has thus turned to the long weekend of Black Friday and Cyber Monday (in many cases extended to the entire week): will the most anticipated black days of the year have held up to last year?
Black Friday and eCommerce: estimates and expected numbers for 2021
A time of the year when traditionally in the ledgers of shopkeepers there was a shift from the red ink of losses to the black ink of profits, the Black Friday period, which takes its cue from this very thing, has once again this year confirmed itself as theright occasion for many Italiansto anticipate their Christmas shopping, without giving up the convenience of receiving everything at home.
According to estimates released by the “eCommerce B2C” Observatory of Netcomm and Politecnico di Milano, in fact, the combination of eCommerce and Black Friday was destined to be confirmed as a winner again for this 2021, with an estimated spending of about 1.8 billion euros, 21 percent more than in 2020.
The trend was also confirmed by forecast data released by Shopify, according to which as many as86 percent of Italians planned to shop during the Black Friday long weekend, with an average spend of €372.
But if we wanted to go into more detail, what were the actual trends found in the Italian market during precisely the “hottest” days?
Providing us with interesting data isBlendee’s eCommerce Active Monitoring Observatory , which focused its analysis precisely on the period between November 26 and 29, 2021.
Black Friday 2021: fewer searches but consolidated sales, at least in some sectors
The pandemic effect ends, but buying habits and behaviors consolidate: as expected, the Black Friday period confirms the maturity reached by the entire eCommerce sector. In fact, in the face of a decrease in online searches with purchase purposes, sales and turnover volumes are moving against the trend and do not know stop.
This was announced by a study by Semrush, according to which typing related to the item “Black Friday” in 2021 has returned to pre-pandemic levels, plummeting 55 percent from last year.
Decreases in searches but not purchases, then, but not for all sectors.
In fact, from Blendee’s data concerning marketing automation activities in the period November 26-29, there is not positive data for the fashion sector , which, compared to the same period of the previous year, marks a decline of 88 percent, in terms of turnover, although the data related to navigation and visualization of products are more encouraging.
Also bucking the trend from last year are the figures for the pharmaceutical and parapharmaceutical sector, which show a decline of 42.13 percent in the number of registered orders and more than 41 percent in turnover, values that are broadly confirmed for the entire Black Week as well (turnover for Black Week 2021 stops at a -31.75 percent compared to that for Black Week 2020).
If Black Friday 2021 did not see positive numbers for the fashion and pharmaceutical sectors, the same cannot be said for the gardening and hobbies sector for which the trend seen during the lockdown period was confirmed, with sales up 15 percent from last year.
The numbers inherent in the superfood and small household and personal care appliances sectors were confirmed to be almost stable, with turnovers marking -16.25 percent and -2.97 percent, respectively.
That Black Friday is the time that kicks off the Christmas shopping season is now a well-known fact, and in this 2021 the trend has been confirmed again with the children’s toy sector holding steady, compared to last year, especially in terms of sales (-2.60 percent).
Post Black Friday: time to think about Christmas!”
We left behind the “blackest” period of the year with a great realization: despite the economic recovery and the progressive reopening of physical stores, eCommerce, and more generally, the online world has become an integral part of our quotidity as consumers and an unfailing touchpoint in the customer journey of even the most reluctant users of digital transformation.
If 63 percent of purchases start from an online interaction (Thinkwithgoogle, 2018), it is crucial to better preside over this channel, enhancing and personalizing the customer experience of its users and customers from the very beginning, even from an omnichannel perspective.
