The speed of e-commerce means brands need near real‑time e‑commerce analytics to identify issues and close gaps in e‑commerce listings during Black Friday/Cyber Monday.
In a year of uncertainties there is one thing we can be sure of – this month’s Black Friday / Cyber Monday shopping event will be unlike any other we’ve experienced to date. With many physical stores closed because of Covid-19 and more consumers turning to e-commerce for their shopping needs, we can expect to see a much greater proportion of holiday sales transacted online, compounding a trend that is already well entrenched.
Adobe Analytics is forecasting a 39% rise in Black Friday 2020 online sales in the US compared with 2019, to bring e-commerce revenue on the day to $10.3 billion. It expects a similar increase on Cyber Monday. In total Adobe Analytics says US consumers will spend up to $29 billion online between Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, contributing to a total holiday season spend close to $189 billion.
Global e-Commerce Surge
Black Friday is no longer a US-only phenomenon. eMarketer says that UK shoppers will spend less in physical stores this holiday season, while the COVID-19 e-commerce surge is set to continue through to the end of the year. It predicts final quarter retail e-commerce sales in the UK will rise by 16.7% to £28.51 billion ($36.38 billion), accounting for 32.2% of total UK holiday sales.
Keeping listings up-to-date, and products in stock to win the ‘buy box’ on key e-commerce sites will be a challenge for product manufacturers over the period. The brands that have the tools in place to spot gaps with greater time-granularity, and fill them quickly are likely to be the winners again this year.
Timely e-Commerce Analytics
It’s shaping up to be a busy season for online retailers and the product manufacturers that supply them. e-Commerce execution plans will already be in place, but as has been said more than once, no plan survives the first engagement. Given the frequency with which prices and product listings change on e-commerce sites – Amazon reportedly changes product prices up to 2.5 million times a day – brands will need to change. Moreover, to provide insight, based on which to make the right changes, they’ll need a robust e-commerce analytics infrastructure, delivering high quality data, in order to keep on top of things.
Along with completeness, accuracy, validity and consistency, timeliness is a key dimension of data quality. Some experts argue that timeliness is actually the most important data quality dimension. As such, eStoreMedia is recommending brands augment daily reporting of certain e-commerce fundamentals with more frequent, intra-day measurement. eStoreCheck high frequency scanning is capable of monitoring key sales fundamentals on e-retailers up to 12 times per day. This offers a balance between data availability and executable changes. The data is easily accessible in both the Distribution and Price and Promotion gap-closing views in eStoreCheck.
High frequency e-commerce data monitoring enables brand teams to identify changes as they happen, prioritize remedial actions and gap-closing, discover high demand items, and manage stock levels appropriately. The speed of e-commerce means brands need more granular e‑commerce analytics to identify issues and close gaps in e‑commerce listings during Black Friday/Cyber Monday.
To find out more about eStoreMedia’s high frequency monitoring of your e-commerce sales fundamentals contact your Client Partner or email us at contact@estoremedia.com.
