The run up to Christmas this year was dominated by Black Friday and Cyber Monday – and the growth in e-comm sales across these two days is in part down to a 35% boom in mobile retailing, believes Facebook and online retailer AO.com .
In the UK, there were 8.7 million interactions with Black Friday content – that’s over five times the global average. The majority of these interactions – whether posts, likes, comments or shares – came from mobile devices, with 62% coming from women, and 36% from people aged 25 to 34.
Boxing Day saw a similar story with 8.3 million interactions in the UK, a staggering 16.8 times more than the global average on Facebook. Once again mobile dominated, with iPhone and Android claiming 74% of all interactions, and women responsible for 69% of interactions.
One retailer who got it right was UK e-commerce site AO.com, which saw mobile drive 72% of all clicks to its website on Black Friday.
“Sitting within the electrical retail business, Black Friday isn’t completely new to the AO.com brand, but this year was the first we took to Facebook to advertise our deals,” explains AO.com’s Social Media Manager Kate Barton. “Whilst we expected to see an increase in likes, comments and shares, what we didn’t expect to see was mobile stealing a staggering 72% of clicks to our site and directly contributing to revenue. But that’s what happened. This just increases our commitment to a multi-device strategy on Facebook.”
The lesson to marketers is clear, says Facebook: as the smartphone becomes integral to the festive shopping experience, reaching people on mobile is increasingly crucial at Christmas.
