Black Friday cyber monday

Each retail vertical has experienced its own unique impact during the first 6 months of 2020. Verticals across the board saw an initial dip in traffic the first few weeks of March after shelter-in-place orders first began. After those first few weeks, traffic universally exploded across multiple verticals with Food & Drink seeing the largest increase and Animal & Pet Supplies seeing the second largest increase. Following that explosion in traffic, as the pandemic and its economic consequences continued on, most verticals saw traffic begin to tail off to different extents. Food & Drink and Sports & Hobbies both saw traffic level out between March and August, whereas Animal & Pet Supplies, Home & Garden, and Fashion & Accessories all ended that period with noticeably more traffic than at the beginning (15% or more increases).

Have these trends remained true during Black Friday? Or are we dealing with a completely different beast?

While Fashion & Accessories site visits were up 7% this year, this vertical saw a decrease in sales (4%), conversion rates (5%) and average order value (3%). A vertical that has outperformed most despite this year's abrupt shift in consumer behavior, Fashion & Accessories saw some of the lowest performance across verticals. Whether it's because consumers have spent most of the year shopping home-friendly fashion, they've set their sights on other more 'essential' products, or simply don't care to purchase clothing at a time when many people continue to spend more time at home, it remains to be seen how this vertical will perform during these last few weeks of the year.

Earlier this year, Nosto data revealed that more than half (56%) of consumers felt it was important to focus on home improvement right now, with 53% of consumers expressing that they’ve started at least one home improvement since the start of lockdown.⁽³⁾ Black Friday 2020 data revealed that consumers are still very much engaged with Home & Garden products, generating one of the highest increases in online visits (55%) and sales (52%) compared to other verticals. While average order value decreased by 5% throughout the day, this can be due to consumers taking advantage of Black Friday sales. Nevertheless, these impressive numbers prove that Home & Garden remains a top vertical of interest for shoppers as many of them continue to spend more time at home.

(3) https://www.nosto.com/resources/home-and-garden-consumer-report/

Sporting Goods & Hobbies saw increases in performance across most KPIs - with visits going up 20%, sales going up 19% and average order value rising 2% throughout the shopping period. While conversion rate decreased by 1%, it’s evident that consumers are were interested in taking advantage of limited-time sales in this category. This is possibly due to the fact that people are turning to online workouts and wellness routines while spending more time at home.