Weekly Digital Breakdown – 12.16.19
Weekly Digital Breakdown
Dec 06 2019
Holiday Shopping Sees Record Start
The results are in and the official start to holiday shopping started with a bang. Despite the shortened season, shoppers were ready to go with a record breaking 190 million Americans making purchases over the long holiday weekend. During the 5 days spanning from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, U.S. consumers spent nearly $7.5 billion online as they rushed to find the perfect gift.
With more brands unveiling deep discounts ahead of Black Friday, Thanksgiving Day 2019 saw record spending with over $4B in sales. In between spending time with family and going back for a second (or third) helping of dessert, people were using their phones to start their holiday shopping. Throughout the weekend, mobile reigned as the preferred method to purchase. On Black Friday alone, more than 60% of all visits from online retailers came from smartphones resulting in $2.9 billion in sales.
While many customers don’t want to face the crowds or the lines, they are still impatient to get the deals and the goods as quickly as possible. As a result of the weekend’s haul, Buy Online Pick Up In Store orders saw a 43% increase over 2018. For retailers, bridging online shopping with offline pickup has been a huge success for attracting customers and cutting shipping costs.
Based on the initial results, consumers are not letting less shopping days deter their spending. With a strong opening weekend, projections of over $143 billion are still on pace as the holidays look to be very merry and bright for retailers.
https://www.adweek.com/digital/thanksgiving-sales-surpass-4b-showing-nothing-is-sacred-anymore/?
Twitter Plans For The New Year
Marketers looking for ways to improve their social presence in 2020 have a new resource available. This week, Twitter unveiled its @TwitterBusiness Calendar highlighting events and key dates to leverage throughout the year. Events are categorized by entertainment, sports, holidays, conferences and others as a guide. In addition, each month features “Tweet Inspiration” which provides tips on how to focus your campaigns around key dates to increase social engagement. Suggestions range from the use of Twitter Polls and Event Targeting to general best practices for tweet lengths and media usage.
While many of the dates noted are obvious, such as national holidays, others can prompt chances for creative campaign ideas to connect with audiences in new ways. Many noted hashtags have surprising numbers of related tweets such National Pizza Day with over 34M tweet impressions or Cochella 4.7M tweet impressions, both of which are easy to tap into to boost reach to a widespread and engaged audience.
Twitter continues to provide this yearly resource along with a holiday guide to help businesses find users who are discovering, researching and making purchase decisions based on their Twitter experience. The company intends to help marketers use its platform to connect people and brands with constant conversation.
Facebook Responds to Crisis
In an effort to improve Facebook Data for Good, Facebook announced the expansion of the platforms Crisis Response capabilities by integrating WhatsApp messaging. People finding themselves in crisis situations will now be able to communicate and quickly mark themselves safe, give or find help, and share photos or videos of where they are located and what’s happening around them. Previously, only Facebook Messenger could be used. The additional source of communication will allow users to disseminate critical information quickly. Depending on the situation, the images of what’s around them could help first responders navigate the best way to send help or de-escalate situations.
The platform also updated its Disaster Maps and Displacement Maps, both of which assist in identifying where people are in need and work to get aid and assistance to them quickly and efficiently allowing for changes in response plans as needed. Facebook is also working with over 100 disaster response and public health partners and providing the mapping resources with the distribution of supplies.
The company plans to continue growing partnerships as it works to empower response teams with tools for maximum effectiveness and minimal lost time. Facebook’s Data for Good expands around the globe as they work to help guide response efforts in recovering areas.
https://www.adweek.com/digital/facebook-integrates-whatsapp-into-its-crisis-response-features/?
