Black Friday & Cyber Monday stats brands need to know in 2024
The holiday season is an exciting time for B2C brands, but it’s also an intense one. Adobe’s forecast shows holiday spending will top $240 billion in 2024, with Black Friday and Cyber Monday alone bringing in $24 billion. That’s a lot of money for brands to get excited about.
But with so much at stake, standing out to shoppers is key. So, to help you succeed this season, we’ve researched what consumers expect from brands and identified some top trends for 2024.
Check out the results of Sinch’s 2024 BFCM Communications Survey to see what’s in store this year and discover ways to build lasting connections with your customers.
Just like we did in 2023, earlier this month we surveyed nearly 1,200 consumers in the U.S., the U.K., France, Germany, Spain, Brazil, and Australia and asked them about their holiday shopping preferences and purchasing habits. Here are some of the top insights from our 2024 BFCM Communications Survey.
There are a lot of valuable insights for brands in Sinch’s 2024 BFCM Communications Survey, from selecting the best communication channels to finding ways to enhance the customer journey.
Here are some key holiday trends to help you gear up for Black Friday.
According to Adobe’s Holiday Shopping Trends report, consumer spending grew by 5% in 2023, and it’s expected to jump another 8.5% this year, with Black Friday alone bringing over $24 billion.
Our survey found that one in three consumers is planning to spend more this holiday season. Younger shoppers are the most likely to increase their Black Friday spending, while those over 50 are more likely to keep it steady or even spend less.
Obviously, there are significant regional differences for brands to consider. In the US, for example, nearly 40% plan to spend less, whereas in Brazil, 61.4% plan to spend more than last year.
Remember when brands waited until Black Friday to launch their deals and promotions? Well, that strategy doesn’t work anymore.
According to our research, just 3.4% of consumers want to hear from brands only the day before BFCM, and fewer than one in five are fine with waiting until the week before. Most shoppers (56.9%) want a heads-up at least a month before, and 21.9% prefer even earlier.
This year, the sweet spot for retailers to kick off marketing communications seems to be around October 29 – one month before Black Friday. You can choose to launch a little later if that feels too early for your brands, but be sure to send your first campaigns no later than two weeks before Cyber Week.
Gone are the days when one channel was enough to connect with customers during the busy holiday period. Now, consumers expect strong omnichannel experiences and want to hear from brands through multiple channels. In our survey, 77.9% of respondents chose more than one channel for receiving deals, with email, websites, and social media ads topping the list.
Mobile messaging options like SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram DMs are also popular, with a combined 44.9% of respondents favoring at least one of these options – an 8% increase compared to 2023.
Apple’s recent adoption of RCS (Rich Communication Services) in iOS 18 has also piqued consumer interest in interactive messages sent directly to messaging apps, with over 50% of respondents globally indicating they’d engage with this format. At Sinch, we’re also seeing RCS gain popularity with brands. In fact, we expect to send over one billion RCS messages by the end of the year.
As with everything, a strong omnichannel experience requires a solid understanding of your audience. Our survey revealed that different demographics want to engage with brands through different platforms and channels.
For example, while it came in last in our global survey as a preferred channel for Black Friday promotions, Instagram DMs was ranked as the top choice for younger shoppers under 30. Nearly 50% of respondents under 30 chose this channel to hear about BFCM deals. And while email is the preferred channel for marketing communications globally, WhatsApp is a strong runner-up in regions like Brazil, Spain, and Germany.
A powerful omnichannel experience starts with email and SMS. Learn how to combine them effectively in your Black Friday marketing strategy in our new playbook.
Personalized messaging is a holiday must-have for consumers, even though for some brands it’s still “work in progress”. Our survey found that 79.8% of consumers appreciate tailored recommendations during the shopping season, with 36.6% saying they find these helpful and 43.2% valuing them as long as they’re relevant.
But personalization isn’t just about promotions – it can also provide a better, more tailored customer experience.
Using AI-driven conversational messaging is a great way to achieve that. When asked about their interest in AI-powered chatbots, one in five respondents in Sinch’s BFCM Communications Survey said they’d be interested in using them as a personal shopping assistant during the holiday season to make more informed purchases.
With the flurry of holiday shopping and shoppers keeping track of multiple orders, timely post-purchase communication is crucial for building customer loyalty and satisfaction.
Our survey found that 94.4% of respondents consider transactional messages very or somewhat important, 14% more than last year. But just sending them isn’t enough – people also expect these notifications to arrive fast. In fact, 75.4% of respondents said they expect order confirmation within five minutes of a purchase, and 46.7% expect it almost immediately after.
Consumers also want flexibility in how they receive these updates – more precisely, where they get them. More than half of our survey respondents say they want to get transactional notifications via multiple channels, with email (75.1%) and SMS (42.9%) as top choices. 30% of respondents said they wanted transactional messages via both email and SMS, and channels like WhatsApp a strong alternative to Black Friday SMS in regions like Brazil, Spain, or Germany.
For brands managing the holiday rush, AI-powered chatbots can be a valuable tool throughout the entire buyer’s journey. These tools are gaining popularity among retailers and consumers thanks to their ability to provide relevant information and solve issues pre- and post-purchase.
Our survey showed strong interest in using AI-powered chatbots while shopping for holiday gifts. Only one person out of our full panel said they’d prefer not to use chatbots at all, and 63% of respondents chose multiple situations in which they’d like to engage with them.
The most popular use cases in our survey were for solving post-purchase needs, with 56.6% of respondents open to using them for tracking orders, 43.2% interested in after-hours support, and 36.6% willing to get their help with returning an item.
Beyond customer service, chatbots can also a great asset in driving sales during the holiday season, with 45.8% of respondents saying they’d engage with one to learn more about a product, and one in five interested in using it as a personal shopping assistant.
For retailers, the holiday season is the most critical time of the year and at Sinch we’re ready to support brands and organizations worldwide reach their customers. In 2023, we powered over four billion global interactions across SMS, voice, and email during Cyber Week. And with new channels emerging and shifting consumer expectations, this holiday season is poised to set new records.
Here’s what we anticipate this holiday season:
“Retailers need to be prepared for the evolving expectations of today’s digitally savvy shoppers. Our predictions for 2024 emphasize the growing importance of omnichannel, personalized, and secure communications in driving customer engagement and sales. Sinch is dedicated to providing the cutting-edge tools businesses need to excel in this competitive landscape.” – Virginie Debris, SVP Product, Messaging & Operators
At Sinch, we’re pioneering the way the world communicates through our Customer Communications Cloud and a comprehensive suite of reliable messaging solutions. Explore our product portfolio to see how we can support your complex sending needs – or reach out to chat with us. The Sinch team is ready to help you make this holiday season a success.
