Nov 25, 2017   SOURCE: PR NewsWire

Thanksgiving and Black Friday Online Retail Sales Grow 23 Percent Year-Over-Year

SAN MATEO, Calif., Nov. 25, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Rakuten Marketing, a leading technology company that that enables brands to increase sales through data-driven marketing, today reported its 2017 online retail shopping data for peak Thanksgiving week sales days, including Black Friday.

2017 sales grew across the three-day period from the Wednesday before Thanksgiving to Black Friday, showing 21 percent year-over-year (YOY) revenue growth and 11 percent purchase growth. Average order value (AOV) over the same period was up slightly, with YOY growth of nine percent. Additionally, purchases were up 17 percent during the two weeks leading up to Thanksgiving week, supporting predictions of an early peak shopping period in 2017. These figures give retailers early promise to what the company expects to be a positive 2017 holiday selling season, forecasted by Adobe to reach $107.4 billion overall. Rakuten Marketing supports these figures with Thanksgiving week highlights defining consumer shopping behaviors during the year's most critical shopping week of the year.

    --  Combined revenue growth across Thanksgiving and Black Friday was 23
        percent YOY.
    --  Online revenue and purchases on Thanksgiving Day grew 28 percent and 35
        percent YOY respectively.
    --  Online revenue on Black Friday grew 21 percent and AOV grew 24 percent,
        though purchases were down three percent, a further indication of
        consumers spreading spend across more days, but saving the bigger ticket
        items for Black Friday.
    --  Peak revenue and purchase activity occurred at 2:00 pm ET on Black
        Friday.
    --  Click-through and ad engagement rates surged in the week prior to the
        holiday, up 154 percent and 111 percent respectively, indicating the
        consumers were researching products for their holiday shopping gift list
        in advance of the peak shopping days.
    --  Consumers are more and more comfortable shopping on mobile devices, with
        smartphone shopping up over the course of the full Thanksgiving Week,
        Sunday-Friday. Mobile revenue grew by 43 percent, purchases by 34
        percent, and AOV by seven percent.
    --  Nearly half, 46 percent, of all page views occurred on a mobile device
        during Thanksgiving Week, Sunday-Friday, indicating that, while mobile
        revenue and purchases are growing, consumers are still researching more
        than purchasing on their mobile devices.

Holiday retail sales results from Thanksgiving week show the continued power of peak promotions. Rakuten Marketing stresses the importance of cross-device measurement and attribution in order to capitalize on the overall holiday selling period. Insight into constant and rapidly evolving consumer shopping behaviors allows advertisers to anticipate, prepare and execute marketing strategies during peak sales hours on peak sales days.

"Holiday shopping behavior is evolving year after year, and we continue to experience outstanding growth as consumers open their wallets in response to retailer strategies during the peak holiday shopping days," said Rakuten Marketing CEO, Tony Zito. "We expect this upward growth to continue into Cyber Monday, and encourage brands to focus on strategies that re-engage the shoppers who have visited their site over the past week who may be holding out to see if there are deeper discounts on Cyber Monday."

Rakuten Marketing Thanksgiving week and Black Friday insights are based on aggregated and anonymous data pulled from same-store clients running display advertising campaigns across more than 35 unique U.S. retail verticals.

Additional information on Rakuten Marketing 2017 holiday retail sales data can be found here. For more information about Rakuten Marketing Integrated Marketing Solutions, visit https://rakutenmarketing.com.

About Rakuten Marketing
Rakuten Marketing industry leading solutions empower marketers to thrive in their evolved role and achieve the full potential of digital marketing, efficiently and effectively, with data-informed insights that create consistent, engaging and influential experiences across screens. Offering an integrated solution, along with unique insights and consultative partnerships, Rakuten Marketing delivers the tools that marketers need to increase efficiency, productivity and performance.

Rakuten Marketing is a division of Rakuten Inc. (4755: TOKYO), one of the world's leading Internet service companies. The company is headquartered in San Mateo, California, with offices in Australia, Brazil, Japan, the United Kingdom, and throughout the United States. Follow us on Twitter or learn more at https://rakutenmarketing.com.

PR Contact
Lisa Tadje, Sr. Director, Communications
Rakuten Marketing
801-718-9980
Lisa.Tadje@rakuten.com

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SOURCE Rakuten Marketing