5 Important Trends For Brands From Cyber Weekend 2024

For marketers in the e-commerce world, Cyber Weekend 2024 had the potential to be the perfect storm for performance. Black Friday came later in the month than in previous years, and for many people in the UK, the day also fell on payday. A large number of retailers also reported a slowing down in people’s spending in the first couple of weeks of November, increasing the potential for Cyber Weekend 2024 to deliver big numbers…and probably putting a little pressure on for that to happen to be honest!

Here at Fuel, our clients experienced some interesting trends over Cyber Weekend 2024 that we thought were worth sharing.

Shoppers Were Spending More…

For the majority of our e-commerce clients, there was an increase in Average Order Value from November 2023 to November 2024 – in some instances as high as 11%. Inflation could certainly play into this trend, but we also saw many examples of retailers offering spend and save incentives over Cyber Weekend 2024 – using vouchers to encourage larger overall basket values – or not offering voucher discounts at all and counting on pricing their products well to maintain conversions even during Black Friday.

…And Doing More Of Their Spending On Mobile

Mobile remained the dominant device when it came to conversions, with percentages as high as 70% of sales from Cyber Weekend 2024 being made by people on their phones. Solutions such as Apple Pay, as well as more and more retailers having their own app to shop with, suggest that confidence in converting on your personal device – and the ease with which you can do it – has never been higher amongst consumers. 

Large Purchases Were Still Made On Desktop

Interestingly though, we did still see Average Order Values remained higher on desktop than on mobile devices, indicating that when it comes to large purchases (such as large furniture or holiday bookings), people still like to sit at their desktop or laptop to convert, potentially having lots of tabs open and reviewing all the options in detail before committing.

Black Friday Delivered Most Of The Weekend’s Revenue

We saw as much as 50% of Cyber Weekend 2024 revenue delivered on Black Friday itself for many clients, with the low being around 32%. This trend reaffirmed that whilst sales are spreading more and more across the full month of November, Black Friday still impacts people’s shopping behaviour and causes a sharp uplift. Saturday is where we noticed the biggest drop in ‘busy-ness’, with Sunday and Monday picking up again as the urgency to get a deal before the weekend’s end kicked in again.

Spending Was Strong Across All Sectors

Despite the challenging financial climate in the UK, we also saw – in almost all clients – a year-on-year increase in their November revenue. There were some modest increases of around 5% in the Tech and Health and Fitness sectors, whilst in the Sporting Goods sector we saw 20% increases in performance for the month. Given the economic context, that has been really pleasing to see.

What Happens Next?

What remains to be seen is if this is the peak of consumer spending or if it remains busy into the final shipping dates before Christmas. We certainly hope your Quarter 4 has been a strong one, but whether it has exceeded expectations or fallen a little short of where you were hoping to be, here at Fuel we would be delighted to speak to you about your e-commerce strategy for 2025 and help you enjoy a fruitful year ahead. 

Please reach out to me via seve@fuel-growth.com to discuss how we can help.