Although Black Friday is a relatively new phenomenon in Sweden, sales on the day and in the days around it continue to explode.
Before 2015, hardly anyone had heard of Black Friday as a big shopping day in Sweden. But in this short time, it has already established itself as the big day for e-commerce in particular. After seeing an increase of around 20% between November 1-18, sales on Black Friday increased by a whopping 87% compared to 2016 according to e-handel.se. This means that Swedes shopped for more than SEK 5 billion.
If we then compare sales during Black Friday between the US and Sweden, we see that Sweden clearly accounts for the largest increase in sales. This is in line with the trends we are currently seeing in Sweden, with e-commerce continuing to grow strongly.
In Svensk Handel’s survey before Black Friday, 45% of consumers said they would shop during Black Friday. More than one in three retailers had some kind of offer during Black Friday and the days around it. In addition, we can add that 78% of retailers believe that Black Friday has increased tremendously in importance in recent years.
Biggest in the US
The US is still the undisputed leader when it comes to Black Friday. There, the day is considered to be the starting point for Christmas shopping. In Sweden, we also seem to be following this pattern. 57% of those who said they planned to shop on Black Friday said they intended to buy Christmas presents.
While brick-and-mortar retail is still the largest sector in the US, recent data from several sources shows strong and growing e-commerce sales figures. This year, total online sales in the US are estimated to have increased by 18% compared to 2016.
Payment services in the US see big increases
Diving into individual companies using Black Friday by the numbers: Another year of e-commerce records, it is worth noting that Adobe increased its Black Friday sales by 16.9% compared to last year. In pure numbers, that means an income of $5.03 billion. In a press release, Shopify says: “At its most intense, it sold for more than $1,000,000 per minute compared to last year’s high of $555,716.”
Adobe, which through its system handles about 80% of all e-commerce at the 100 largest companies in the United States, announces that sales in the period November 1-24 went up by 17.8% year-on-year to $ 38.3 billion. Adobe also reports that 54.3% of all visits to retail websites were made on a mobile device.
Based on 350 million consumers, Salesforce notes that smartphones accounted for 60% of all retail traffic, up 53% from last year. “Consumers are no longer just browsing on their phones. 42% of all orders over the weekend were made from a smartphone.” According to Salesforce, e-commerce sales increased by 26% over the Black Friday weekend.
Rakuten Marketing, a digital marketing and analytics platform, presented figures in terms of clicks and advertising engagement, noting that both activities increased significantly in the week before Black Friday, clicks by 154% and advertising engagement by 111%. “Consumers researched the products they intended to buy before the weekend’s promotions kicked off.”
Black Friday in Sweden
In Sweden, we can see that the payment service Dibs increased the number of transactions during Black Friday by 61%. At the same time, turnover increased by 62% compared to 2014. “This year, almost half of Swedes shop on Black Friday, mainly online,” says Patrik Müller, e-commerce expert at Dibs.
Payment service Klarna saw even better numbers during Black Friday. Transaction volume increased by 97% compared to last year. “In other words, an extreme increase,” says Jonas Köpniwsky, head of PR at Klarna.
Shopping via mobile devices is also on the rise during Black Friday. According to Criteo, 40% of all e-commerce purchases in Sweden were made on a smartphone.
Likewise, our customer iDeal of Sweden had a good Black Friday. They reported an order intake of around 80,000 orders, almost twice as many as expected. This is an increase of more than 5 times as many as in the same period last year. “The interest in our products during Black Friday has been enormous, which we are very happy about,” the company said in a customer release.
Another Swedish company that saw a large increase in sales is CDON, which increased its sales by 80% compared to last year.
E-commerce still going strong
By looking at the companies we mention in this article, we see even more clearly how e-commerce during Black Friday has increased since last year in both Sweden and the US. The Swedish payment services with up to doubled turnover through their systems. At the same time, it is clear that the biggest winners in percentage terms are individual companies.
But will it only go up? One can begin to sense some increased skepticism among buyers, both in Sweden and the US. The reasons include excessive marketing and revelations of bad deals in the media. Fortunately, this does not seem to be affecting e-commerce, and the forecast shows continued strong growth in e-commerce.