It’s the most wonderful time of the year — Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales! It’s the ultimate showdown of brick and mortars versus online giants. Department stores are especially motivated to recover from a tough year — Macy’s closed 15% of its stores, designer brands pulled products from shelves and even super luxe Neiman Marcus entered the apparel rental market to appeal to millennials. We dug into Quantcast’s view of online behavior to see who will fight the crowds on Friday and who will opt to buy online Monday.
Demographic Profile of Searchers Similar — Tech-Savvy Deal Seekers
Demographic profiles of Black Friday and Cyber Monday were similar. Both appealed to 25- to 34-year-olds along with 65+-year-olds and skewed toward minorities. Black Friday skewed higher with parents, while Cyber Monday skewed significantly higher with males and millennials (18- to 34-year-olds) — a demographic that department stores have struggled to resonate with. Both searchers showed high interest in technology and outlet/discount shopping.
Clear Geographic Preference for Cyber Monday
Black Friday searches significantly outnumbered Cyber Monday searches. When we compared interest in Cyber Monday and Black Friday to the national average, we saw that coastal states showed more excitement toward Cyber Monday than other states — the higher interest in digital mirrors the locations of Macy’s brick and mortar store closings. The 14 states that showed the highest excitement for Cyber Monday represented more than 50% of announced 2017 Macy’s closures due to struggling sales.
Retailer and Electronic Deals Dominated Searches
Top searches around Black Friday and Cyber Monday were related to retailers like Walmart and Target along with electronics deals. Outside of retailers and electronics, specific trends emerged for each occasion — pre-sales deals were popular for Black Friday and travel/airline deals for Cyber Monday.
At first look, the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopper look very similar — a tech-savvy, deal-seeking 65+-year-old and 25- to 34-year-old minority. On a state level, coastal states showed the highest interest in Cyber Monday. A closer examination of search terms show Black Friday searchers are also researching pre-Black Friday sales, while Cyber Monday searchers are focusing on travel deals. Whether you’re waking up early to catch the sales or browsing from your couch, happy shopping!
Check out Forbes write-up on Bricks Versus Clicks: The Black Friday And Cyber Monday Breakdown.
