Black Friday Email Marketing Report 2017 [Infographic]

Black Friday 2017 Email Marketing Report

Published: Nov 28, 2017 | Updated: Oct 1, 2021 by Joyce Qian in Ecommerce

2018 update: Our new Black Friday report 2018 is out! Read it here!

Each year, online retailers make new records during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping period. In 2016, consumers spent a total of $12B online over the Black Friday weekend alone. Black Friday 2017 was no exception, as a growing number of consumers opt for the comfort of their home (office) over the crowded streets and malls when it comes to grabbing the best Black Friday deals. At ContactPigeon, we analyzed millions of transactional records for a sneak peek into how Black Friday 2017 was shaped up. We have wrapped up our key findings in the following infographic about Black Friday Email Marketing Report 2017:

(btw, our Black Friday 2017 email marketing report was featured at smartinsights.com and hosted to decades of sites worldwide, having been read more than 3k times! )

Black Friday Email Marketing Infographic

Click to enlarge the image.

Contactpigeon Black Friday 2017 Email Marketing Report — Contactpigeon Black Friday Email Marketing Report 2017

Key Findings from Black Friday Email Marketing Report 2017

1. Record online sales for Black Friday

Our data shows a peak one-day sales this Black Friday. There is a 14% revenue increase compared to same 24 hour period on Black Friday 2016.

1. More retailers are using email for Black Friday campaigns

The overall volume of emails sent during the 24 hours of Black Friday exceeded the previous year by 11%. This suggests the continued emphasis retail brands worldwide places on email as a channel to reach their consumers. Overall, email marketing contributed to nearly 23% of total sales made on Black Friday day.

1. Automatically triggered campaign is a key trend this holiday

Email marketing has been around for lots of years and it’s penetration as a marketing tactic is undoubtful. However, as competition rises the necessity pushes the brands to evolve and step into “next generation” email marketing, thus investing in Marketing Automation software. This Black Friday, we noticed that approximately 2% of the total email volume is triggered (e.g., abandon cart, browse abandonment, etc). Yet, triggered campaign have a significantly higher conversion rate at 26.2% compared to an average of 5.3% for all email types. This is a near 3x in conversion boosts with triggered campaigns!

1. Most active hours are 10AM, 9AM, noon and midnight (12AM Black Friday)

An hour by hour view provides interesting patterns in the email delivered and the subsequent opens, clicks and order rate by shoppers.

The most active hours for consumer placing orders are 10AM, 9AM, noon and midnight – beginning of Black Friday. On average the order conversion rates for these hours are 4.8%, 4.1%, 4.0%, and 3.3% respectively. There is a peak in the early hours of Black Friday as retailers kick off their Black Friday sales as early as midnight when the clock strikes Friday. A second peak occurs again later in the morning between 9AM and 11AM as consumers wake up to continue exploring the deals from their office or home. For the shoppers who are at work, we see another uptick during lunch hours of noon and 1PM as office workers use the leisure time to find attractive deals online.

1. PC desktop is (still) the Black Friday king

Despite the growing mobile usage, the majority of the open and order conversions takes place on PC and Mac desktops. 51% of all Black Friday orders are made on desktop platforms, with average click rates of 43% and conversion rate at 7%. Given the extended browsing hours and ease of inputting order details, consumers continue to opt for desktops to complete their Black Friday shopping experience.

1. Android on the rise

Among mobile devices, Android tops iPhone this year in terms email consumed and conversions. 21% of the emails are open on Android devices compared to 17% on iPhones.

Emojis are not game winners

Two-thirds of Black Friday emails contain emojis in their subject lines. However, the use of emoji’s alone doesn’t ensure higher conversion to sales. In fact, sales email without emojis shows a 1.5x higher conversion rate than the ones that contain emojis.
[bctt tweet=”Email alone as a channel makes up ~23% of sales attribution on Black Friday 2017.” username=”contactpigeon”]

— George Moirotsos, CEO & Cofounder, ContactPigeon

Other useful Black Friday resources for eCommerce

Liked what you see on our Email Marketing Report?

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Marketing Automation Update: We recently released the Ultimate Marketing Automation Guide for 2018, with 8 proven eCommerce automations tactic to grow your eshop. Have a look!