Author: Pete Austin, Chief Technology Officer, Fresh Relevance
In 2015, the Black Friday effect started on the previous Sunday and built throughout “Black Friday Week”, as some brands jumped the gun and released offers early.
This is in stark contrast to last year (more details here), when the previous week was actually lower as shoppers waited for deals.
The Thursday before Black Friday (better known as Thanksgiving in the USA), continues to do well. Traffic on Black Friday itself was higher than last year, at about 220% of normal levels, but we did not see any unusual activity, or notice any clients having problems. Clearly, marketers and support staff have got the hang of the peak loads.
Saturday and Sunday of “Black Friday Weekend” were somewhat higher than last year. Cyber Monday was much reduced. It seems that “Black Friday” offers are being spread over a wider period and Cyber Monday is getting overshadowed.
We expect traffic to remain about 25% higher than normal in the run up to Christmas, like it did last year. We’ll do another blog post in about a week to report on what happens.
These charts are based on billions of page views across all the clients of real-time engagement marketing company Fresh Relevance, about 50% in the UK and 50% worldwide.