Unpacking Cyber Week 2024

Maggie Hackman , Senior Strategist

It’s no surprise that over the last several years, Black Friday has evolved beyond the traditional day-after-Thanksgiving “doorbuster” savings event to a days and often weeks-long omnichannel savings event as retailers attempt to capture holiday shopping traffic before their competitors. What has not changed, however, is how steadily and eagerly consumers show up to fill their carts, both digital and physical, with what they believe to be the best deals of the year.

Whether you call it Cyber Week, the Turkey 5, or just holiday shopping, consumers can look forward to multiple days of steep discounts and a barrage of targeted advertisements from brands across all channels, both in-store and online. And just as brands show up with discounts, consumers show up with budgets, spending a record $41.4B during Cyber Week this year—an increase of over 8% from 2023.

So what else did we see this Cyber Week besides record-breaking sales? In a world where e-commerce is growing at lightning speed and digital strategy matters more than ever, it’s crucial to identify and unpack the trends associated with large tentpole events like Cyber Week.

Cyber Week 2024: Trends & Impact

1. Unsurprisingly, Amazon wins Cyber Week.

Amazon recently announced that their 2024 Cyber Week event was their largest in history, including record sales and a record number of items sold. A study by Profitero showed that, entering the holiday season, Amazon had an average of 14% lower prices than other retailers for the eighth year in a row. While Amazon easily wins Cyber Week, this offers brands a unique opportunity. As competitors pour time, energy, and budget into performance during Cyber Week at Amazon, brands might choose to be one of few in their competitive set focusing on showing up brilliantly across other retailers, like Target and Walmart.

2. Cyber Monday sales outperform Black Friday.

While Cyber Week is often a days-long event, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the two days where most shoppers fill their cart. While $10B was spent on Black Friday this year, Cyber Monday saw a record-breaking $13.3B spent. Cyber Monday is known for deals on larger-ticket items such as electronics, and shoppers who were willing to wait to shop for their preferred item on Cyber Monday saw steep discounts of up to 30%. Knowing that shoppers are coming to the digital shelves on Cyber Monday, brands might consider reserving a section of their marketing efforts for Cyber Monday, meeting consumers where they are with both higher and lower-ticket items.

3. While still omnichannel, Cyber Week is trending digital—specifically, mobile.?

While consumers are still willing to shop in-store for outrageous discounts, Cyber Week shopping is trending digital. This year, in-store traffic was lighter than ever before and Salesforce reported that almost 70% of Black Friday purchases were made on mobile devices. Consumers are more comfortable than ever shopping online and on mobile devices, and Salesforce reported that the number of mobile advertisement messages consumers received increased 17% from 2023. There is also speculation into the role that AI chatbots on brand sites are playing into e-commerce, with 93% of consumers agreeing that generative AI could help them find better gifts this holiday season. As brands prepare for tentpole events like Cyber Week, it’s important to consider how to optimize their content for not only search, but also AI agents like Amazon’s Rufus.

1. The rise of social shopping and livestreams is shifting the omnichannel landscape.?

TikTok shop has exploded this year, in addition to other social shopping capabilities on Meta platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. This Cyber Week, TikTok Shop saw more than $100M in revenue on Black Friday alone. According to that same Adobe study, influencers' share of revenues on Cyber Monday was over 20%. The rise of social shopping points to a blend of commerce and entertainment, especially as influencers and content creators take advantage of TikTok’s live stream capabilities, of which there were more than 30,000 on Black Friday. It’s important for shopper marketing teams to analyze how social shopping and influencer marketing might impact their digital strategy in years and holiday seasons to come.

There is no doubt that Black Friday and Cyber Monday will continue to grow and evolve as technology changes and new consumers enter the market. However, as we see Cyber Week and e-commerce in general trending digital, it’s a great time to take a look at your digital commerce strategy. How might your strategy help you cut through the noise and meet your consumers where they are, when they need you?