Black Friday 2021 through the Fetchify lens
- Laura Lutener
For our eCommerce clients, Fetchify’s address lookup and data validation tools sit in their checkout, speeding customers through the form-filling stage. Although an address lookup is not a definite guarantee that the sale has been completed, it is a good indication. So this means, we can get a pretty good idea of conversion rates for our eCommerce customers over the Black Friday/ Cyber Monday weekend. It was another weird year, with COVID-19 still hanging around and Storm Arwen hitting the UK at the same time as the sales, high street footfall was lower than expected with the first drop in numbers since Black Friday sales first started over here.* But what did this all mean for online sales?
Interestingly, sales this year were almost identical to 2020, following the same pattern and almost the exact same numbers of lookups at checkout ie. the same numbers of sales. If anything, the peaks were shallower on Friday and Monday than previously. Instead, we saw more traffic in the weeks leading up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Possibly due to worries oversupply lines encouraging more people to shop early, and possibly due to sale extending beyond one specific day or weekend.
Last year we took a closer look at a couple of different industries and how they fared over the BF/CM weekend. Le’ts catch up with them again and see how things are going a year on.
Cards and Gifts
With fewer restrictions this year, it is perhaps unsurprising that eCommerce sales of cards and gifts are down (though still doing well) from last year’s extreme heights, as people are able to meet and celebrate special occasions in person.
Food and Ingredients Delivery
A very different shape from last year but still growing steadily after the weekend.
Animal Charities
Not doing as well this year, hopefully due to pet owners visiting brick and mortar stores instead.
Travel
Travel is making a steady recovery but with continuing restrictions and uncertainty around international travel, it isn’t surprising that we#re not yet back to pre-covid levels.
Event Ticketing
To end on a high note, event ticketing, which took one of the hardest hits last year, is right back up and has even grown from 2019
About Fetchify
We are a pioneer in SaaS address lookup and data validation solutions. We process millions of data transactions each day for thousands of clients ranging from small e-commerce startups to large household brands such as Heinz and RBS. Our flagship products Address Auto-Complete and Postcode Lookup reduce friction on checkouts, leading to increases in conversion rate of up to 40%, and helps reduce failed deliveries by as much as 75%. Since launching in 2008, we have differentiated by our ease of integration and exceptional support.
