Online conversion rates rose by 44% on Black Friday, according to iAdvize data

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UK online conversion rates rose by 44% on the daily average on Black Friday – up 3% year-on-year - according to data from iAdvize, the conversational commerce provider, while Cyber Monday conversions increased 27% compared to an average Monday.

With over £2.53billion expected to have been spent on Black Friday alone (Centre for Retail Research), and transaction value up 16.5% across the weekend (Barclaycard), many retailers have benefited. John Lewis reported a 9.5% rise in sales over 10 days - with 43% of those sales coming via mobile - while Boohoo, also reported a record performance over Black Friday.

Online demand in the UK on Black Friday rose by 8% on the daily average, while Black Friday demand online increased 60% on the average Friday across Europe, according to data from iAdvize, based on insight from over 110,000 conversions made on the day itself.  This, iAdvize, suggests, led to increased online UK revenues of 29% on Black Friday and 15% on Cyber Monday, compared to the average Friday and Monday respectively.   

Online contact levels also rose over the Black Friday weekend, with 19% more contacts made on Black Friday against an average Friday and up 11% year-on-year, while Cyber Monday saw an increase of 4% of contact levels on the daily average. 

Stuart Gordon, UK Country Manager at iAdvize, commented: “Despite rumours of a Black Friday and Cyber Monday backlash, we have seen many retailers benefiting from increased demand, conversions and turnover brought about by the discounting event.  Our latest research shows that 40% of UK shoppers now want human interaction in the online buying process.  This means retailers wanting to optimise and sustain conversions – and sales – into the critical peak trading period will need to provide assistance to customers across multiple touchpoints to provide the seamless, supported shopping experiences consumers now expect.”  

Looking ahead to Christmas shopping, consumers are expected to equally split their Christmas spending between online (50%) and the High Street (50%), according to PwC*.  Original research of over 50 senior UK retailers in the ‘Cross-channel conversations: How store staff are boosting online sales’ report from iAdvize revealed that retailers’ top priorities mirror this online/off-line split.  The top priorities for UK retailers for peak trading were in-store staff optimisation (20%), around scheduling and customer services, and website performance (20%) in terms of site performance and stability.  This was followed by stock allocation for 18%.