We’re thrilled to share that 2019 marked another record breaking holiday sales season for StackCommerce publisher and merchant partners. With Thanksgiving arriving later this year, the holiday shopping season was cut short, elevating the importance of the biggest shopping weekend of the year even further.
Our team worked diligently to arm our partners with robust performance marketing strategies, and the results speak for themselves. With Cyber Monday falling in December this year, the festive month marked StackCommerce’s highest sales month of all time — a 27.9% increase compared to last year, formerly our top grossing month. Read on for more big wins and learnings across our network:
Cyber Monday Beat Out Black Friday (Again!)
According to Salesforce, 2019’s Black Friday was the biggest digital shopping day of the year for the third year in a row, beating out Cyber Monday sales by a whopping $10 billion. At StackCommerce, not only were our partners able to see 46% year-over-year Black Friday growth, they were also able to successfully monetize through the weekend, marking our biggest Cyber Monday ever. In fact, StackCommerce’s partner sales surged on Cyber Monday beating out Black Friday by 84%.
Comparing our growth to the reported 15% gain in global online sales during the holiday weekend, it’s clear that the combination of content and commerce is especially impactful when it comes to driving commerce traffic and conversions during the holiday period.
TV Proved a Winning Channel for Holiday Shopping
This holiday season, we also invested in broadcast television partnerships showcasing a handful of our merchant partners on nationally broadcasted segments. As customers tuned into their favorite TV shows for last minute holiday guidance, these segments led to the biggest sales day in StackCommerce history. We’re excited to continue to explore alternative media, influencer, and podcast partnerships in 2020, offering our merchant partners a rare opportunity for unique exposure and sales.
New Marketing Channels Soared
Web push notifications in particular resonated with consumers during the busy shopping season, delivering exclusive coupon codes and sale information directly to their phones. Furthermore, our web push notification audience grew by 45% in the last five weeks of the year alone, a sign of the momentum behind these new channels and potential for 2020 and beyond.
Our performance marketing team introduced three new personalized marketing channels in 2019: web browser push notifications, SMS text messages, and Facebook Messenger.
Product Recommendation AI and Roundup Articles Provided Convenience to Shoppers
It’s no secret that AI personalization is key to the future of e-commerce, and the results from the busiest shopping week of the year agree. In fact, shoppers were 12% more likely to purchase when viewing an AI-recommended item. These tools, which are built-in to both the StackCommerce shop product and marketing emails, certainly contributed to the 2019 holiday success for all partners.
In addition, roundup, guide, and listicle style articles proved to be an effective tool for adding convenience to the holiday shopping experience by providing product recommendations and gifting inspiration. Roundup articles across our network drove 30% higher sales on average than single product articles throughout the holiday season.
Looking Forward to the 2020 Holiday Season
We’re eager to continue building these tools and are excited to release a slew of customer experience features throughout 2020. Cheers to another record-breaking year and a huge thank you to our fantastic network of partners!
