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In the blink of an eye, the annual Black Friday sale has come to an end. According to Adobe Analytics, this year's Black Friday online sales in the United States are expected to increase by 7.5% year-on-year to $9.8 billion ( about RMB 70 billion), setting a new record. Among them, on Black Friday (November 24), online sales of electronic products such as smart watches and TVs increased by 152%; sales of toys, games, skin care products and kitchenware sets also increased significantly compared to normal sales. Based on the strong sales performance on Black Friday, Adobe expects US consumers' shopping enthusiasm to remain high throughout the shopping week. However, what is shocking is that Amazon, the leading e-commerce platform in the United States, did not seem to be able to continue the boom in orders during Black Friday this year. According to the feedback from Amazon sellers recently, most sellers failed to achieve the expected increase in orders during Black Friday this year. After a long warm-up phase, the ultimate Black Friday battles on Amazon's major sites started last week. Looking at the sellers' performance, some are happy and some are worried. On Black Friday, November 24, local time in the United States, some Amazon US sellers saw their order volume double , and they all shared their good news: "Usually there are only 400 orders on Saturdays, but today there are 1,000 orders! Acoas is 7.11%, and the sales volume is $160,000. It's great." "Usually we have 80-90 orders, but today we have already received 300 orders!" ▲ The picture comes from the seller’s disclosure Some sellers also mentioned that although the number of orders on Black Friday was not as high as the previous Member Day, it also increased: “About 3 times, not as good as PRIME DAY in July. Hope there will be more on Net Monday!” “2 times, about the same as usual Black Friday, but worse than Prime Day.” But more sellers said that compared with previous years, this year's Amazon Black Friday was really bleak. Survey data shows that as of November 26, among the 560 sellers surveyed, more than 40% were disappointed with Black Friday and had not even cleared out their inventory . 34% of sellers did not participate in the Black Friday event, only 22% of sellers achieved a surge in orders, and 11% of sellers had poor profit performance. Judging from the current situation, this year's Black Friday promotion has not brought much traffic bonus to most Amazon sellers. There are even many sellers who have failed to achieve the basic inventory clearance goals in this traditional year-end peak season. Therefore, sellers are also discussing the reasons why Amazon's Black Friday promotion was not popular this year. According to the sellers' speculation, the following three reasons are summarized: 1. The overall growth rate of US e-commerce has slowed down, and the economy has not yet fully recovered Data from the U.S. Department of Commerce show that U.S. e-commerce sales are expected to reach $1.1 trillion in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 7%. According to Marketplace Pulse, although U.S. e-commerce sales are expected to continue to grow this year, the growth rate will be the lowest since the 2009 recession. At present, although consumer demand has increased, the US economy has not yet fully recovered, which affects consumer psychology. 2. The longest activity cycle in history, frequent promotions cause "consumer fatigue" This year, Amazon's Black Friday promotion was exceptionally long, with the preheating period starting on November 17 and officially ending on November 27. It was the Black Friday with the longest activity cycle in history. In addition, the previous autumn promotions, Halloween and other activities have just ended not long ago, and consumers are prone to "consumer fatigue". That is, after their needs have been met in advance, stimulating new consumer demand again requires merchants to spend higher marketing costs. 3. Multiple e-commerce platforms join Black Friday, offering big discounts to share market traffic As the scale of Black Friday promotions continues to expand, similar promotional activities on e-commerce platforms such as Temu, TikTokShop and AliExpress continue to emerge, which not only divides part of the traffic on the Amazon platform, but also easily causes consumers to develop "discount fatigue." That is, after seeing big discounts on other e-commerce platforms, consumers' acceptance of normal prices has been weakened. If the same products on Amazon do not have lower prices, it will be difficult to attract consumers to buy. Judging from the Black Friday battle reports released by e-commerce platforms and sellers such as Temu, TikTokShop and AliExpress, the third speculation mentioned above has been further confirmed. According to the event time of major e-commerce platforms, the 2023 Black Friday promotion has gradually begun since October 20. According to sellers’ feedback and the Black Friday situation announced by major e-commerce platforms, the two stores that had the greatest impact on Amazon’s traffic during this year’s Black Friday were Temu and the newly-entered TikTok Shop. Temu: Outstanding performance on Black Friday It is learned that on October 20, Temu took the lead in entering the warm-up period. When it came to the official Black Friday promotion period, there was not only a discount of "up to 90% OFF", but also a promotion of "US$200 coupon per person and three products of your choice for free" . By attracting customers with extremely low prices, as of November 25, many sellers on Temu have successfully achieved explosive sales and posted their impressive Black Friday results on social platforms. Some sellers even received thousands of orders per day. ▲ The picture comes from the seller’s disclosure It is worth noting that according to sources, during the Black Friday period, Temu launched the "US$200 coupon per person, three free products of your choice" promotion at the time when Amazon started the Black Friday preheating (November 17), which will undoubtedly have a significant impact on Amazon's Black Friday preheating traffic on the day. TikTok Shop: First Black Friday sales hit It is learned that TikTok Shop has joined the Black Friday battle in the US market for the first time this year. The event will last from October 27 to November 30. Judging from the battle report currently released, TikTok Shop's first Black Friday report card is also very impressive. From October 27 to November 2, TikTok Shop launched the "Black Friday Pre-sale" event, achieving a record of "GMV sales in the US market increased by 155% and order volume increased by 145%" , and many small store sellers stood out; - From November 14 to November 20, during the Black Friday promotion, the order volume of TikTok Shop fully managed in the US market increased by 205% month-on- month, and the number of moving goods increased by 177%, with home furnishings, fast-moving consumer goods, women's clothing and other categories being the best-selling.
▲ The picture comes from TikTok Shop In addition, SHEIN and AliExpress, both Chinese cross-border export platforms, have also maximized their price advantages in this Black Friday promotion, and are expected to deliver impressive results. According to data from Cainiao International Express, before Black Friday this year, the inventory of AliExpress Cainiao Cross-border Preferred Warehouse increased by nearly 9 times year-on-year , and most of the goods will be shipped to countries covered by the "Global 5-Day Delivery" service. From this perspective, this year's Black Friday sales boom seems to be concentrated on China's overseas e-commerce platforms.
It is worth noting that according to Adobe's forecast, this year's year-end promotion is expected to maintain strong growth, and Cyber Monday sales will reach a record $12 billion, an increase of 6.1% over the same period last year. Here we suggest that all sellers adjust their mindsets quickly and make good use of the Black Friday promotion as a test to optimize subsequent operations and product selection strategies and complete the real year-end "final exam". How are the Black Friday sales of all sellers? Feel free to share in the comments section~
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