Black_Friday_Stats_Media_Alert

San Francisco (November 28, 2011) – Skai (www.skai.io), a global leader in digital marketing software, today unveiled preliminary findings of the company’s annual Online Retail Holiday Shopping Report. The findings focus on Black Friday and the week leading up to one of the season’s busiest shopping days and are based on data collected between November 1 and Black Friday in 2011 compared to the same period in 2010. The dataset examined by Skai represents more than 12 billion total search advertising impressions, 160 million clicks and three million online sales transactions across U.S. online retail advertisers.
Some of the most important findings include:
  • Online search advertising spend increased 48 percent year-over-year (YoY) on Black Friday
  • Online retail revenue driven from search advertising increased 29 percent YoY on Black Friday
  • Online retail revenue driven from search advertising increased 40 percent YoY on Thanksgiving Day
  • Average search advertising cost per click (CPC) increased 25 percent YoY on Black Friday
  • Online retailers’ return on advertising spend (ROAS) decreased 13 percent YoY on Black Friday
  • Total sales driven by search advertising for the week leading up to Black Friday increased 25 percent YoY

“So far this holiday season, retailers are seeing more sales volume but less efficiency with their search ad budgets,” said Aaron Goldman, chief marketing officer for Skai. “Competition in search advertising reached record levels on Black Friday this year with increases in retail budgets driving up cost per click rates. Thankfully, consumers were not only clicking but also buying with online purchase activity ramping up the week of the holiday and spiking on Thanksgiving Day itself before reaching all-time highs on Black Friday. Overall for the week, though, return on ad spend for retailers was down compared to 2010 as the lifts in revenue did not outweigh the lifts in ad spend on a percentage basis.”

This research is based on the Skai U.S. Retail Index, a cross-section of Skai retail advertisers covering verticals like apparel, electronics, entertainment, home improvement, gifts, luxury goods and toys. These and other findings will be covered in the Skai 2011 Online Retail Holiday Shopping Report, planned for release twice, during the weeks of December 5, 2011 and January 9, 2012.

About Skai
Skai is a digital marketing software company that engineers technology solutions for search marketing, social media and online advertising. Advertisers, agencies and marketing providers use Skai Enterprise, Skai Local and Skai Social to direct more than $15 billion in annual customer sales revenue. The Skai Universal Platform delivers automation, intelligence, integration and scale to make better marketing investments. Skai powers 6 of the top 10 global hotel groups, 7 of the top 10 retailers, 7 of the top 10 telecoms, 9 of the top 10 ad agency networks, and 23 of the Fortune 50 companies. With campaigns running in more than 100 countries, Skai customers include Annalect, Barnes & Noble, CareerBuilder, Expedia, Facebook, Havas Digital, Hitwise, iREP, John Lewis, LendingTree, Sears, Starcom MediaVest Group, Tesco, Travelocity, Walgreens, and Zappos. Skai has ten international offices and is backed by Sequoia Capital and Arts Alliance. Please visit www.Kenshoo.com for more information.

Skai is a trademark of Skai Ltd. All other company and brand names may be trademarks of their respective owners.