Monday, November 27

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🚨 In today’s newsletter 🚨

• Black Friday was so big it set a new record

• Black Friday winners and losers

• TikTok Shop’s first Christmas

Let’s get into it👇

#1 - 🥇 Black Friday set a new record for online sales

📰 TL;DR - All the pre-Black Friday data and surveys pointed to this being a record-setting year, and now we know that proved to be true. According to Adobe, shoppers spent a record high of $9.8 billion online on Black Friday, up 7.5% from last year. Interestingly, more than half of that came from mobile purchases. Also interesting is that a report from Mastercard showed in-store purchases were up a little more than 1% from last year, showing that Black Friday’s growth is really online.

💡 Insight - Fingers crossed that you got a good chunk of that online action at your own store. Plus we still have Cyber Monday today to contend with, which traditionally sees more online sales than Black Friday. However, given that so many purchases were online for Black Friday, I’m curious to see if that holds true. I also wanted to share this tweet from the founder of Portland Leather. He shared that they made one sale on their first Black Friday. Now they’re worth millions. So if you didn’t have a standout Black Friday, it’s not the end of the world. Learn, grow, and kill it next year.

➡️ You can read the article here...

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#3 - 🏆 Black Friday winners and losers

📰 TL;DR - Our top link was very data-focused, but this piece digs into those numbers and calls out the winners and losers of this Black Friday. The big winner was truly online and especially mobile. For Shopify merchants specifically, 76% of sales were from mobile. That’s huge. Also, the calendar works in your favor this year — there’s an extra weekend before Christmas, with the holiday falling on a Monday, which could be great for last-minute shopping and deals (if people are okay with a late delivery!). Discount shoppers also won this year. The loser? Early morning doorbusters.

💡 Insight - The classic image of Black Friday comes from retail — hordes of people lined up in the wee hours at big box stores, waiting to run in and grab items in a chaotic display. There’s even a hilarious Superstore episode about it. But the reality is that that’s just not what Black Friday is anymore for the most part. Rather, it’s people opening their mobile browser or favorite shopping app. This is great news for e-commerce! And for you!

➡️ You can read the article here...

#4 - 🛠️ Things worth checking out

🛍️ SHOPIFY - Shopify took over the Las Vegas Sphere to show real-time sales on a global map.

💎 LUXURY - Luxury sales are projected to reach $1.6 trillion this year, up 8-10% from last year.

📱 MOBILE - The mobile shopping trend is expected to carry on to Christmas.

🦃 THANKSGIVING - Thanksgiving shopping also set new records this year.

🔎 SEO - Here are three new search metrics to be paying attention to.

#5 - 🎄 TikTok Shop’s first Christmas will be ethically sticky

📰 TL;DR - This is the first holiday season since TikTok Shop came to the US and some users are divided over whether they love it or hate it. First, the positive — nearly half of respondents ages 18 to 29 said they plan on buying some holiday gifts on social media app. TikTok will presumably be a big part of that. People are also pretty jazzed over the deep discounts TikTok has been funding to drum up buzz. However, much of what’s on TikTok Shop is ultra-cheap goods produced overseas and some consumers are questioning the ethics of, for example, a $4 purse.

💡 Insight - I’d really love to believe that the tides are turning and shoppers are considering the ethics of ultra-cheap goods, including labor practices. But I have trouble believing it. Shein, Cider, Temu, etc. are all doing pretty well. And I’m not judging. With inflation and other factors, people just want their money to go further. However, I do think at least some shoppers are purposely choosing more ethical brands, including many of the DTC brands that have seen great growth this year. I do also wonder if TikTok Shop’s reputation would shift if there were simply more ethically-driven DTC brands on the platform.

➡️ You can read the article here...