The U.K. peak retail shopping season has historically revolved around a few key dates — Cyber Monday, Green Monday (2nd Monday of December), and Boxing Day (day after Christmas). In 2013, U.K. consumer behavior shifted slightly, showing enormous increases in paid search activity on Black Friday.
Traditionally celebrated in the United States as the start to the Christmas shopping season, Black Friday is the Friday following the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. Recently, Black Friday has been acknowledged on a more global scale with promotions and specials expanding to outside the U.S. This has caused changes in marketer and consumer behavior and likely contributed to the 2013 paid search shopping season results we saw in the U.K.
As summarized in the Skai 2013 Global Online Retail Seasonal Shopping Report: Early Edition, paid search in the U.K. has continued to grow steadily during the peak shopping season when compared to 2012, with performance spikes on the aforementioned key dates. Whilst U.K. marketers increased ad spend on Cyber Monday and Green Monday (12.1% year-over-year (YoY) and 11.9% YoY respectively), a much greater 40.6% YoY increase in ad spend was observed on Black Friday.
The investment was not seen without results for marketers — while Cyber Monday and Green Monday both saw 40%+ YoY increases in online revenue, Black Friday alone, drove a 291.4% YoY increase in paid search online revenues, proving to be a crucial date in the 2013 U.K. shopping season.
Whilst Black Friday was a highlight during the peak shopping season, U.K. retailers also generated positive gains throughout the rest of the period with a 6.1% YoY increase in clicks and 21.2% YoY increase in impressions.
To learn more about these key U.K. findings along with Global and U.S. trends, view Skai’s 2013 Global Online Retail Seasonal Shopping Report: Early Edition.
Remember, the season is not over yet! Stay tuned for insights and analysis of Boxing Day paid search performance in the U.K. and the full edition of Skai’s 2013 Global Online Retail Seasonal Shopping Report.
powered by Borlabs Cookie