How deals and social networks are impacting Black Friday

Online merchants are taking Black Friday and Cyber Monday advertising to a new level this year. Although 'shoppers' have been leaked for years, there are now websites dedicated to unmasking the best Black Friday deals and some merchants aren't shy about sharing their deal news early - and direct to the customer.

by Kristina Knight

According to Responsys, email levels are already approaching Black Friday levels; research director Chad White reports top online retailers increased their rate of promotional email sending 8% (week ending November 11) and 17% Year over Year; most (69%) are sending these messages on Friday. In 2010 Responsys found Thanksgiving Day email send increase 45% over 2009 levels; that increase helped push online Thanksgiving Day sales 28%.

Daily deals, in particular, are expected to have a high showing through this weekend and, in fact, throughout the holiday season.

"One of the biggest trends I am seeing is that deal companies are allowing their deals to run for longer periods of time," said Matthew Moskowitz, Marketing and Public Relations Director, 8Coupons. "You used to only be able to purchase a deal for 24 hours, now you have a week or longer."

Another trend? The 'experience' deal - like a wine tasting or museum outing - rather than a percentage off deal. And expect social networks to play a bigger part in distributing these deals, simply because both merchants and shoppers are sharing the information with friends.

"People buy things that are recommended to them by their friends," said Henry Kim, Co-Founder and President, sneekpeeq. "Retailers can. . .better integrate social into their holiday plans by using the social tools that are available the right way. Social isn't about putting a shopping tab on a Facebook page. [Merchants should] 'lead' with the social tools - sharing, suggesting, etc. - that translate well into shopping and let Facebook and social media consumers shop naturally."

To that end, Payvment is launching their Black Friday deals section, an aggregation of daily deals information, and offering it through their Shopping Mall on Facebook. The integration will allow social shoppers to search for and share deals or make purchases without leaving Facebook. According to Payvment numbers, shopper traffic has increased 30% since November 1 and social discussion/sharing has increased 25%.

"[We're] helping the boutique sellers by aggregating and promoting their deals for consumers all in one place on Facebook," said Christian Taylor, co-founder and CEO, Payvment. "Consumers are starting to think of Facebook as a holiday shopping destination, and we hope to encourage that behavior by making it incredibly easy to find unique gifts and great deals from a large number of sellers."

The Black Friday deals section launches as 12:01 AM ET Friday, November 25.

Tags: 2011 holiday shopping, 8Coupons, Black Friday, ecommerce, ecommerce trends, Responsys, sneekpeeq, social commerce, social marketing

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Michael

Deals and social media go hand in hand within the society in which we live. Due to the current economic climate, almost everyone is looking to cut costs. Enter deals and social media. Suddenly consumers can buy items for a real discount. In the past many online discounts may not have been real or were 'phishing' sites looking to increase membership.
Now, however, people are over the initial trust issues relating to online deals and are just getting into the mind set of social sharing. Everyone knows someone who can benefit from saving money. That's the first part of social sharing. The next is the 'tiering' mechanism of rewards. Over the coming months, we will begin to see rewards and incentives issued to the social consumers who become brand influencers.
Social commerce sites have already begun to implement analytic suites to identify these 'power consumers' and have even begun efforts to create a 'frequent flyer' club to reward these 'social travelers'.
The resonsys stats are interesting, but it would be more interesting to see the effectiveness of these emails and the direct result of sales.
Good article - thank you.

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