Since Black Friday is behind us, it is high time to analyze what has happened in the ecommerce industry this year. While 2020 is a big surprise for all of us, there was no surprise to the Black Friday’s fewer. A week (or in some cases even earlier) before November 27, the Internet was flooded by Black Week deals.
What were the purchasing trends this year? Did they differ from last year’s ones? Has the pandemic had a clear impact on Black Friday shopping in 2020? What are the best Black Friday statistics? We will answer these and more questions according to the Report by SEMrush. If you are interested in reading the full report – here you can find it.
Let’s start with this year’s general information.
Black Friday 2020 – what did people buy?
It is undeniable that most consumers shop for electronics during Black Friday. Even if the discounts are not spectacular, with the high prices of these products in this category, it is still one of the best deals.
As you can see, the most popular product groups were laptops, TVs, and microwaves. When it comes to items – Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and AirPods by Apple. Where did people want to buy? At Walmart, Amazon, and Best Buy. These sites were sweet spots this year.
The pandemic that hit the world in 2020 had a huge impact on ecommerce. Already at the beginning of the year, in the first and second quarters, the ecommerce market experienced a massive increase in consumer interest – about 30%. This year’s Christmas shopping started already in October and will certainly last until the last days before December 25.
What was the situation like during Black Friday? Now and then, Week comes instead of Friday. Many companies launched promotional actions around a week before November 27. Despite this fact, the phrase black friday did not appear on the list of even 35 of the most popular searches in October.
That may be caused by the fact that about half of the holiday shoppers reported that in 2020, offers from the last six months reduced their interest in this year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. This means that starting a promotional campaign too early is not always good – customers will get used to it and forget about promotion when Black Friday finally will come.
Due to the significant reduction in trade, many consumers have had to move to the Internet. A very large number of clients this year did online shopping for the first time ever. Even if the stores remained open – a significant part of the society, fearing the crowds, preferred to succumb to online shopping craziness instead of queuing in brick and mortar stores.
The global trend is the growing popularity of Black Friday shopping. The fame of this discount period is increasing not only in areas for which it is a relatively new phenomenon but also among countries that were pioneers in Black Friday shopping. Such countries are the United States, Australia, and Brazil.
2020 is also unique in one more respect – the number of black friday searches increased by almost 30%.
Ecommerce users appreciate good deals. And one of them are coupon sites like Rakuten, Groupon, and Slickdeals. There were at the fore when it comes to Black Friday- related searches. It’s hard to argue, any way is a good way to save some money. Although as you can see peak on this search was in May and not just before Black Friday season in October
Ecommerce in Germany – what do Germans buy online?
Considering the period between November 2019 and October 2020, Germany searched for relatively similar items as other users. In the top German searches related to Black Friday were Nintendo Switch, AirPods, and Pandora. Then come Dyson, iPhone 11, and PS4.
As you can see, German favorites are quasi similar to the global ones in this case.
When it comes to retailers, the most popular among Germans were Amazon, MediaMarkt, Pandora, and Saturn. In the case of Black Friday-related keywords, the top five were: black friday 2020, black friday 2019, amazon black friday, and black friday deals.
Above data comes from the period from November 2019 and October 2020. Now it is high time to focus on Black Friday 2020.
Black Friday 2020 in Germany
Germans shopping preferences are similar to global ones but there is also a trend that German consumers do not agree with. It’s about the popularity of Black Friday – the global trend is increasing while comparing 2019 and 2020 in German ecommerce, you can notice a quite significant decrease – almost 16%. Similar to Cyber Monday which popularity has decreased by 50%!
What was the most popular among Germans? Nintendo Switch, AirPods, Dyson products, Apple Watch and iPad were holy grails this year. When it comes to retailers – Germans were looking for products from Amazon, Apple, Media Markt, Saturn and Ikea.
What were the Germans asking Google search about? Top questions from this year Black Friday were wann ist black friday, wann ist der black friday (when is black friday), when is black friday, wann ist black friday bei amazon (when is black friday on amazon) and wann ist der nächste black friday (when is the next black friday).
Germans were interested in Black Friday deals but compared to previous years they lost a lot of interest. This may be due to the fact that in 2020 many people were not just in the mood for a big purchase during the spreading pandemic.
After all, 40% of holiday shoppers admitted that due to the pandemic they were planning to spend less this year on holiday shopping so Germans definitely can relate.
Another big argument here is the increasing environmental awareness and how badly consumerism affects our planet.
Eco awareness is increasing among people around the world. During the year searches related to online shopping impacts on the environment has increased by 2250%! It shows that the awareness of people in this matter is growing and although maybe some have decided to make less shopping this year.
As you can see, Germany did not succumb to the pressure of the society and Black Friday promotions. They refrained from excessive consumerism. Regardless of whether they were driven by concerns for the planet or the desire to save money and time, the downward trend is something completely new to Black Friday results.
To sum up
Black Friday is one of the craziest periods all over the Internet. Everyone seeks out the biggest deals and tries to do as much Christmas shopping as possible. 2020 was without a doubt a year in which a lot has happened.
This situation had a positive impact on the popularity of ecommerce. Many new consumers were convinced (or were forced) to shop this way. And those who had supported ecommerce for a long time appreciated this way of shopping even more.
In all this, we have not forgotten about a very important aspect related to shopping – consumerism and its negative impact on our planet. Awareness in this area is growing, which translates into ecommerce results. Proof of this was the decline in Black Friday sales popularity in Germany. We can assume that ecology played a part in this.
If you want to learn more about global trends on Black Friday, feel free to read SEMrush Report. You will surely find a lot of valuable information there.
