Black Friday 2020 was a multi-billion dollar success for Shopify and its merchants. This year, Shopify merchants set record sales of $2.4 billion on November 27, 2020. This includes sales from independent merchants and entrepreneurs as well as direct-to-consumer brands who use the Shopify platform. Record sales started early in the day. As of 8 a.m. Eastern time Friday, Shopify merchants had already hit $1 billion in sales. More than 1 million merchants use Shopify as their ecommerce platform, but Shopify did not specify how many merchants made sales on Black Friday.
Record results
Shopify president Harley Finkelstein commented on the record-setting results.
“We’re thrilled with the Black Friday sales generated by the businesses on Shopify. In just a single day, merchants around the world produced more than 80% of the sales of the entire holiday shopping weekend last year,” said Finkelstein in a November 28 news release. “With more consumers than ever shopping online this year, we anticipate this weekend being one of the biggest ecommerce events in history, as consumers vote with their wallets and support the independent and direct-to-consumer businesses they love.”
Black Friday highlights
Other highlights from Shopify’s blockbuster day include:
- The top selling cities were New York, London and Los Angeles.
- The top selling countries were the U.S., U.K. and Canada.
- Mobile sales were 67%, while desktop sales were 33%. Last year, mobile sales were 69% and desktop sales were 31%.
- Top product categories for sales were apparel and accessories, health and beauty, and home and garden.
- The average shopping cart on Black Friday was $90.70, an increase of 11% compared to 2019.
- 14% of orders were cross-border sales.
In October, Shopify said that early trends indicated that the pandemic had not significantly changed shoppers’ plans for the four-day pre-holiday sales period known as Black Friday/Cyber Monday (BFCM). At that time, 67% of U.S. consumers, 50% of Canadian shoppers, 67% of French shoppers, and 61% of German shoppers said they planned to shop during BCFM. However, instances of COVID have spiked across the world in the last month, so that could account for the significant increase in online shopping during BFCM.
New subscription and upsell options option
To help merchants who are dealing with an increase in sales, Shopify rolled out several changes to the platform in early November. Merchants can now sell subscription products and offer post-purchase upsells using Shopify Checkout. These options can help solidify the relationship between customer and merchant, while also increasing merchant revenue and improving the customer experience.
Insider Take
With so shoppers in so many countries on lockdown, and retailers trying to spread sales more evenly across the holiday season, the Black Friday numbers are astonishing. A 75% increase is huge year-over-year, and we can probably expect similar numbers from Cyber Monday. This is exciting for Shopify, who provides their platforms to merchants on a subscription basis, but especially for merchants who are trying to survive the pandemic. Some were already online-only businesses, but since the pandemic hit, savvy brick-and-mortar stores have moved to online sales to fill the gaps. Shopify is a great tool for merchants to use to sell their products and services, no matter what the season.
