蘑菇AV

Amazon鈥檚 extended Black Friday and Cyber Monday event was its biggest ever, with record sales and items sold. TikTok Shop generated more than $100 million in sales on Black Friday, driven by over 30,000 livestreams from creators and sellers.

Black Friday and the Cyber Five window was a crucial test for Prime Video鈥檚 shoppable advertising capabilities. Streaming and connected TV platforms spent much of 2024 launching shopping features, though Amazon has a leg up due to its merchant marketplace. Amazon sunsetted Freevee, its free, ad-supported streaming service, merging it with Prime Video to consolidate its streaming advertising offerings.

Several media buyers told Digiday they devoted as much as 10% of their monthly budgets to shoppable ad formats centered on Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales events to gauge their performance. Digiday found that Amazon鈥檚 shoppable ads secured major clients including Fisher-Price and Dollar Shave Club (DSC).

Visa proactively blocked 410% more suspected fraudulent transactions in the UK on Black Friday than it did the year prior. And across all of Cyber 5 weekend in the UK, Visa blocked 117% more transactions than it did in 2023. The payments network didn鈥檛 disclose the number of US transactions it stopped.

How advertising will change: TikTok has stayed the course throughout 2024 despite the ban, introducing new features and seeing significant success with TikTok Shop around Black Friday. But with (at least) a temporary blackout looking like a certainty, marketers are sure to turn their attention elsewhere.

What fueled interest: TikTok Shop鈥檚 major push into US social commerce鈥攚hich saw it attract $100 million in Black Friday sales鈥攄rew attention to the historically slow-growing sector. But it鈥檚 still a nascent one: Consumers report lower trust in social commerce, with many staying on the sidelines.

That includes a 10.2% gain on Black Friday to $10.8 billion (a hair above our forecast of $10.76 billion) and 8.8% on Thanksgiving to $6.1 billion (almost exactly in line with our July forecast of $6.11 billion). The trends:. The looming threat of tariffs drove shoppers to trade up in categories like electronics, appliances, and sporting goods.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are still the two biggest shopping days of the year, but with many brands moving sales earlier鈥攁nd shoppers holding out for deals in December鈥攖he rest of the holiday season has become more important.

Best Buy鈥檚 Black Friday Sale kicks off on Thursday with an initial batch of doorbusters, followed by more on November 22 and November 29. Those deals include 41% off an LG 45-inch OLED gaming monitor and 54% off a Dyson digital slim cordless vacuum. The retailer also plans to offer app-exclusive flash deals on Black Friday.

They said they had a record breaking Black Friday in Cyber Five, which you kind of have to take with a grain of salt, given that they had a much longer sales period this year than they have had in the past. But even taking that into account, it was a good quarter for them. Marcus Johnson (04:14):. 40% just overall market, doing good things. Okay, what else do we have? Rachel Wolff (04:20):.

The platform is preparing for millions of consumers to shop via livestream commerce in November and December and anticipates triple-digit Black Friday growth. Across the pond: TikTok is equally optimistic about its chances in the US, where it鈥檚 embedding commerce more deeply into the user experience.

Its family-friendly programming and broadcast hours the day before Black Friday makes it high-value ad space. The average ad during last year鈥檚 parade sold for $865,000, per Guideline, netting NBCU $52 million in advertising against a production budget of about $7 million. 鈥淭he National Dog Show,鈥� which airs immediately after the parade, is also a major moneymaker for NBCU.

Roughly 2 in 5 (38%) of consumers across nine countries鈥攊ncluding the US, France, and Australia鈥攈ave either already used genAI in the course of their shopping journeys or plan to use it to shop Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and other sales, per Boston Consulting Group鈥檚 2024 Black Friday Survey.

Malls proved to be a brick-and-mortar winner, with mall operator Simon saying YoY traffic at its centers rose 5.9% on Black Friday, 6.3% YoY on Saturday, and 8.2% on Sunday. Meanwhile, value and specialty grocery chains saw high growth in visits on the day before Thanksgiving when compared with last year, per Placer.ai data. Grocery Outlet Bargain Market saw a 13.5% growth in YoY visits.

Shoppable ads will also be front-and-center during Amazon鈥檚 coverage of the Black Friday NFL game. By the numbers: TV is a potent tool for product discovery. Nearly two-thirds (63%) of consumers find new brands or products through TV content, per an 蘑菇AV survey conducted with Shopsense AI.

Amazon has turned Black Friday into a week-long event, which Jeremy your team deemed Cyber Dozen. Is that what you came up with? Jeremy Goldman (15:13):. Yeah, the Cyber Dozen is the new Cyber Five. Sara Lebow (15:15):. Love that. That's not crazy interesting to me. More Black Friday, longer Black Friday, we've been talking about that for 30 years.

The company has been adding additional benefits, such as exclusive Black Friday deals, for members, but still doesn鈥檛 rival Prime in membership. Use this chart: Marketers can use this chart to inform retail media investment and merchandising decisions and to determine potential retail membership partnerships. Related 蘑菇AV reports:. Retail and Ecommerce Sales Benchmarks: Q4 2024.

Ahead of Black Friday, TikTok Shop will host a 鈥淏rand Palooza鈥� with offers and products from brands like Benefit Cosmetics, HEYDUDE, and Liquid I.V., as well as shoppable 鈥渟uper livestreams鈥� with yet-to-be-named celebrities. On Black Friday, TikTok Shop will host exclusive product launches from brands like Mavwicks Fragrances and period care brand August, per Retail Brew.

The news: TikTok Shop plans to win over holiday shoppers ahead of Black Friday with its 鈥淏rand Palooza鈥� campaign. The event will feature exclusive offers and products from brands like Benefit Cosmetics, HeyDude, and Liquid I.V., as well as shoppable 鈥渟uper livestreams鈥� with yet-to-be-named celebrities. The campaign will run from November 13 to 27.

Sports and streaming synergies: Amazon Prime Video鈥檚 NFL Black Friday broadcast and upcoming NBA coverage reflect its investment in high-profile sports content. NFL games attract younger, affluent viewers, with Prime鈥檚 Thursday Night Football audience averaging 82 minutes of viewing time, exceeding league averages.

The expectations: Consumers will be sharply focused on finding value this holiday season, which is why marquee promotional days such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday will be incredibly important. Thirty-six percent of US consumers are poised to shop on Black Friday, and 34% expect to make a purchase on Cyber Monday, per YouGov.

Black Friday in October: Amazon鈥檚 sale has driven retailers such as Best Buy, Costco, Target, Walmart to launch their own October events that, in some cases, coincide with Prime Big Deal Days. Consumers have taken note: 33% of Numerator respondents shopped or planned to shop Walmart Holiday Deals, and 31% shopped or planned to shop Target Circle Week.

The company used its two-sided network to capitalize on the holiday weekend

But the payment method鈥檚 volume grew slower than overall retail sales, suggesting providers need to do more to amp up growth

The buy button has been on a growth tear since Shopify opened it up to enterprise customers outside of its ecosystem