There has been a lot of noise surrounding mainstream retailers over the crazy shopping days, but how did the independent retailers get on?
The key shopping days in the UK; Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Small Business Saturday, all took place within the space of just over a week. All of these are adopted from American tradition, the UK has jumped on board with these events in recent years.
Brightpearl analysed the performance of 1,200 of their retail and wholesale customers from various industries over Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Small Business Saturday UK. The data looked at same-business and channel comparisons across the number of items sold, gross merchandise value (GMV) and sales channels for all sales orders processed.
Drum roll please… Here are the results and they’re very interesting!
Black Friday vs Cyber Monday
In 2015, Black Friday took place on November 27th and Cyber Monday fell on November 30th. According to the Guardian, Black Friday failed to make up for November’s slow trade, suggesting it was not as big of a success as expected.
Interestingly, Brightpearl’s data shows a large increase in gross merchandise value (GMV) between 2013 and 2014, but this year UK consumers have spent almost the same as they did last year.
Black Friday stayed the same with a 0% increase and Cyber Monday dropped by 2%. Are UK shoppers already bored of the crazy discount shopping days?
Although Cyber Monday spend decreased slightly, the discount day still came out as the winner in the battle between Black Friday vs Cyber Monday.
Small Business Saturday UK
Following Black Friday and Cyber Monday was Small Business Saturday which took place on December 5th in the UK. Small Business Saturday aims to celebrate local small businesses and encourages shoppers to visit independent businesses rather than the retail giants.
Small Business Saturday 2015 has seen the biggest increase from 2014 with a 16% rise in gross merchandise value (GMV). Beating both Black Friday and Cyber Monday in percentage increase, Small Business Saturday awareness has seemingly increased.
With coverage by the BBC, Guardian, Financial Times and various other nationally media, the Small Business Saturday name is growing. Will the 2016 event be an even bigger success for small businesses?
eBay vs Amazon marketplaces
Amazon stole the show with the UK website selling more than 7.4 million items on Black Friday. According to Brightpearl’s data, Amazon has also dominated in the eBay vs Amazon marketplaces battle.
For the third year running, Amazon has dominated in the eBay vs Amazon marketplaces battle. However, 2015 has seen the biggest win with 59.6% for Amazon vs 40.4% for eBay. Amazon certainly seems to be gaining market share from eBay.
Average order value
Average order value has interestingly fell from £128 in 2014 to £112 in 2015 suggesting UK retailers continue to increasingly discount more each year.
As well as average order value falling, more consumers have headed online instead of going to the shops in order to avoid the hustle and bustle experienced in the UK in 2014.
Retailers and consumers alike appear to have had some doubt in their minds about Black Friday and Cyber Monday so what lies ahead for the cyber weekend of 2016?
