The unlikely winners from this year’s Cyber Monday
Cyber Monday used to be how smaller online retailers could capitalise on consumers who were eager to spend, without competing with Black Friday. But in the digital world, Black Friday and Cyber Monday have morphed into an extended sales period. John Lewis has identified that the early start to their Black Friday discounts was the reason for a 7.7% increase in sales. At a national level, Black Friday sales are set to go over £7bn in the UK. Cyber Monday is a large part of this.
Driven by an increase in e-commerce and Mobile functionality, what was once an in-store frenzy over one day, is now a purely online experience for most consumers. This digital evolution is having a huge impact. Salesforce predicts that 40% of annual revenues will be generated between Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
With this increase in spending the Black Friday sales period is enabling unlikely winners. These are brands who have taken advantage of the event, without letting it consume their brand. Here’s what they did:
Businesses of all sizes are capitalising on the event
Amazon started the digitization of Black Friday, and are a large driving force in its growth. But smaller companies have also taken advantage. Ecommerce platforms such as Shopify enabled their customers, often small businesses, to jump aboard the bandwagon. They created plugins such as sales countdown timers that businesses could implement. This meant smaller businesses could imitate larger ones and compete with more advanced e-commerce services.
News publishers are using affiliate partnerships to get involved in Black Friday
News publishers are not natural participants in Black Friday, but this hasn’t stopped them on pursuing commercial opportunities. They have been using new ways to engage their audience and increase revenue by enhancing commercial partnerships. The Guardian, The Telegraph and the Evening Standard have all advertised Cyber Monday deals and offers through their channels.
Another opportunity for publishers was linking their own editorial content to affiliate pages. For example The Guardian’s interview with Kim-Joy from the TV show The Great British Bake-Off, was linked to pages marketing products for baking. This meant that Cyber Monday traffic was also being driven to other non-commercial content. This shows how an unlikely participant in Cyber Monday could still be involved without having a physical product to sell.
Subscription services emphasised their deal offering
Subscription services, such as the restaurant meal service MealPal and the beauty brand Birchbox, used the sales period to promote their own sign-up incentives as Black Friday or Cyber Monday deals. It’s normal for these services to offer deals and incentives for starting a subscription, so essentially every day with them is a Black Friday or Cyber Monday. But with the hype around the sales period, and with consumers more primed to look for deals, this was an easy way to offer the usual incentives to consumers.
Lastly, Brands are capitalising on the Black Friday backlash by promoting non-commercial causes
This sales period has faced opposition from brands, who have chosen to promote themselves in non-commercial ways instead. One such example is Patagonia, who have chosen to donate 100% of its profits from Black Friday in support of grassroots environmental organisations. This shows how even brands that claim to oppose the overtly consumerist nature of the Black Friday and Cyber Monday phenomenon, can still use it as a PR opportunity to promote themselves. This earns valuable trust from audiences who are turned off the levels of excess promoted in this period.
Max Askwith is Global Digital & Innovation Director
