Goodbye Cyber Weekend, Hello Holiday Season

The COVID pandemic has accelerated a change that we’ve been experiencing for a very long time in a matter of a few months. The center of gravity in retail has shifted away from physical store locations towards primarily online. What we are seeing is not an anomaly – it is the blueprint for the future of retail. The online growth we have seen since the start of the pandemic will continue long after we have a vaccine.

Resilient retailers who embrace true omnichannel models and employ all the resources at their disposal are the ones that will succeed during the pandemic and in the future. That is the reason Syntasa not only powers big-box retailers, but we also power up-and-coming startup retailers. The future of retail is retail-everywhere with online channels leading shopping behavior.

The Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend that we traditionally know is not a weekend anymore; it is now a season, and it’s transformative for retail. Retailers that apply the lessons learned from these past weekends will see an increase in online shopping across every single category. This week, E-marketer released a report saying that both Cyber Monday and Black Friday will surpass $10 billion dollars in online sales in the US in 2020. That’s a 40% increase from 2019. 

We also have evidence that Black Not-Just-Friday has become an entire season of online shopping. Orders are already up 17% in the first half of November versus comparable periods last year and the year before that. We are seeing an average cart size increase by about 18% comparing the second week in November this year to last year as well. Consumer buying trends have shifted – 97% of US shoppers plan to shop exclusively online this holiday season.

And the behavioral experts think this trend won’t stop when the COVID vaccine is released. This shift in consumer behavior will be permanent.