Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2024: Connecting brands and shoppers with omnichannel communications

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the biggest shopping events of the year. This year, they drove an impressive $118.2 billion in revenue in 2024 during the month of November, with $10.8B generated on Black Friday alone! The holiday shopping season is also a critical period for digital customer communications, as retailers look to engage with consumers before, during, and after their purchases.

At Sinch, we’re uniquely positioned to witness the holiday buzz firsthand. With thousands of brands relying on us to deliver their holiday campaigns and business-critical messages, we have a front-row seat to all the action.

Want to know how brands connected with their customers during Cyber Week 2024? We’re here to tell you the full story.

Earlier this year, we set out to discover what consumers really want during the busiest shopping season of the year. We asked 1,200 consumers about their Black Friday communication preferences and one thing was clear: Shoppers expect personalized, omnichannel communications from their favorite brands.

But did brands meet these expectations? We’ve analyzed billions of interactions delivered through Sinch’s Customer Communications Cloud during Black Friday and Cyber Week. We’ve compared consumer preferences with real-world data to find out if brands are truly meeting shoppers’ expectations.

Here are the top highlights:

In our BFCM 2024 Consumer Survey, consumers emphasized their desire to receive holiday promotions through not just one, but a variety of channels, with email, brand websites, and mobile messaging leading the way. And our data shows brands are indeed connecting with their customers through many different touchpoints.

SMS remained a critical channel during Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2024, proving to be the most effective for last-minute deals and promotional reminders. Sinch delivered over 1.8 billion SMS messages worldwide across Black Friday and Cyber Monday, demonstrating that businesses continue to heavily rely on text messages to engage with their customers during this high-traffic period.

But it wasn’t just SMS – other channels also experienced significant growth. Email, the top choice for both marketing and transactional communications according to our BFCM 2024 Consumer Survey, saw a 22% year-over-year increase sent during Cyber Week 2024.

Our survey found that email is also the preferred option for receiving transactional messages, such as order confirmations and shipping notifications, and it’s clear that retailers still trust email to deliver these business-critical communications. Sinch experienced a 33% increase in email volumes on Black Friday and another 33% increase on Cyber Monday compared to 2023, a peak sending period for transactional messages as shoppers make their purchases.

Brands are also increasingly turning to interactive and conversational channels to meet consumer expectations for engaging holiday promotions – especially as competition intensifies during key shopping dates like BFCM.

Mobile messaging volumes rose by 14% during Cyber Week compared to an average week in the year. WhatsApp also saw a 68% increase in traffic on Black Friday compared to a typical Friday, as businesses leaned into the channel to activate their holiday deals – especially in South America.

It’s also no surprise to see RCS stand out as the fastest-growing channel. Brands are starting to leverage its unique benefits, including verified and branded messages, interactive features, and conversational capabilities.

Earlier this fall, Sinch announced that it had sent over one billion RCS messages so far in 2024, and the channel saw an impressive 111% growth across Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2024 compared to 2023.

Competition during the holiday season is fierce, with an avalanche of promotional messages hitting people’s inboxes and fighting for consumer attention.

On Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2024, Sinch delivered an impressive 7.68 billion interactions across SMS, MMS, RCS, WhatsApp, and email. And with so many messages hitting inboxes, the question is clear: Do all these messages really get noticed?

Our analysis revealed good news for brands trying to drive consumer engagement. On Black Friday 2024, emails achieved an average open rate of 13%, excluding bot activity. On Cyber Monday 2024, the highest sending day for email, the open rate rose to 15%. This level of engagement during such a crowded season, on par with the average rates year around, shows the increase in volume doesn’t impact engagement and underscores the effectiveness of targeted email communications.

The growth of interactions on mobile messaging apps also played a pivotal role in shaping consumer interactions, with RCS as the rising star of the holiday season.

In Sinch’s BFCM survey, 51% of consumers expressed interest in engaging with interactive holiday promotions delivered through their messaging app and retailers have taken note. RCS achieved open rates of 53%, demonstrating its power as a highly effective channel for driving customer engagement.

WhatsApp also remains a critical channel, particularly in countries such as Brazil, India, and Germany, where consumers expect both promotional and transactional messages to arrive through this channel. Known for its conversational capabilities, WhatsApp continued to prove itself as a channel that delivers really high engagement, with open rates of 76% across the two key days.

We’re nearing the end of 2024, but the shopping season is far from over – there are still some key moments on the horizon and consumers have high expectations.

Standing out during the busiest time of the year isn’t easy. It takes omnichannel expertise, the right tools, and trusted partners to cut through the noise and create meaningful customer connections.

That’s where Sinch comes in. Our Customer Communications Cloud, enterprise-grade infrastructure, and robust suite of messaging, email, and voice solutions help businesses worldwide drive engagement and boost sales across every touchpoint. We make sure every campaign and business-critical message lands where it’s intended to – on the right channel, at the right time, every time.

Discover the full Sinch portfolio and see how we’re helping companies around the globe reach new heights this holiday season.