This Week's Amazon News: Key Insights from our Black Friday Recap Report (45% YoY Growth!), Beauty Promotions Surge, TikTok Shop's $100M Day
Amazon Black Friday/Cyber Monday 2024 Recap and Key Takeaways
Envision Horizons' Black Friday/Cyber Monday 2024 report reveals key shifts in Amazon shopping behavior, from evolving peak sales hours to changing advertising costs, with unique insights from our client portfolio demonstrating 45.8% YoY growth during the "Turkey 12" promotional period.
This Week's Amazon & E-Commerce News:
The Evolution of Promotions in Beauty
Beauty retailers are getting more aggressive in promoting sales events across platforms (with Amazon and TikTok Shop driving increased competition), while Circana data shows 29% of prestige beauty sales were promotional in 2024 (up from 27% in 2023), signaling heightened consumer deal-seeking behavior across channels.
Apple Adopts AWS AI Chips in Key Endorsement
At Amazon's AWS re:Invent conference, Apple revealed it's using Amazon's custom AI chips for search services and is evaluating them for AI model training—a significant endorsement of AWS over competitors Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.
TikTok Shop Hits $100M in Black Friday Sales
TikTok Shop showed impressive growth in its second US holiday season, generating $100M in single-day sales. Notable highlights: 30,000 livestream sessions drove engagement, with beauty brands leading performance. Other key categories were fashion and home, with major brands like Tarte Cosmetics and Miniso seeing strong results.
Discounts and Deals Led to a Holiday Weekend That Exceeded Expectations
Despite a slight dip from 2023's record 200M shoppers, the 2024 Thanksgiving weekend saw 197M shoppers and higher average spending ($235 per person, up $8 YoY), with consumers strategically taking advantage of early deals and showing strong response to promotional offers.
Our hearts go out to our beloved team member MJ and her family who lost their home and all belongings in a devastating fire last Friday. They are safe but face a challenging road ahead. If you're able to support their recovery through this difficult time, we've shared their crowdfunding link below. Every contribution helps them rebuild!
Post From Laura Meyer :
This year, Black Friday showed us that the U.S. consumer continues to embrace the convenience of online shopping. Shoppers spent a record $10.8 billion online—a growth of over 10% compared to last year! (Source: Adobe Analytics). However, this shift came at the expense of in-store shopping.
So, how can we apply these trends to 2025 business planning? Here are a few key takeaways:
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1. E-Commerce Excellence is Table Stakes It’s no longer just about being present online; it’s about having a purposeful strategy across Amazon, your DTC site, and other digital platforms. Balance these efforts while keeping your brick-and-mortar partners engaged and satisfied.
2. Digital Marketing Drives All Channels Invest in enticing, creative campaigns that spark excitement and help consumers solve the perennial question: “What do I buy for this family member?” Strong digital strategies support both online and in-store success.
3. Start Early, Win Big Earlier holiday deals appear to have softened Black Friday’s foot traffic. Many shoppers likely felt confident they’d already checked off their lists before Friday arrived. Don’t be afraid to extend your promotions into pre-Black Friday weeks.
4. Logistics Excellence is Everything Distribution planning is critical. Make sure your products are in the right place at the right time—whether that’s a local Target shelf, an Amazon warehouse, or your DTC fulfillment center.
The takeaway? Consumers value convenience more than ever, and it’s up to us to meet them where they are—whether online or in-store. Customers also anticipate and expect promotions.
Post From Jasmine Enberg :
Deep discounting, flash sales, coupons and other special offers are staples in the TikTok shopping experience, whether it’s the day after Thanksgiving or not. That, combined with the heavy emphasis on creator-driven shopping, will help TikTok convert more users into buyers than any other social platform this year.
In 2024, EMARKETER expects 43.8% of US TikTok users to make at least one purchase on the platform, ahead of both Instagram and Facebook. The influx of new TikTok buyers and the high frequency with which they shop will also cause total US social commerce sales growth to spike temporarily this year. As TikTok told my colleagues at Business Insider, single-day US Black Friday sales alone on the app surpassed $100 million. While that’s still a small fraction of the estimated $10.8 billion US consumers spent on Black Friday, per Adobe Analytics, it’s a major achievement, considering this is only the second Black Friday for TikTok Shop.
Keeping up the momentum will be key for TikTok as we head into 2025. As the novelty of TikTok Shop wears off and reports of high return rates from impulse purchases emerge, it will be harder for the app to bring in new buyers.
Post From Max Sigurdson-Scott :
The 8 secondary image font rules you should not break: Let's have the biggest impact on our Amazon buyers (who are mostly on their mobile devices).
The rules:
1. Limit text overlays to 5 words or less
2. Key callouts should be at least 40pt
3. Secondary callouts (if necessary) should be at least 30pt
4. Unless your brand has a specific "luxury style," avoid serif fonts. Arial, Helvetica or Open Sans are great choices
5. Never place text over busy backgrounds
6. No more then 2 lines of text
7. Maintain high contrast colors that don't blend in with other elements
8. Only place the text in the top third of the image (if possible)
Post From Laura Meyer:
Cyber Week, Turkey 5—whatever you call it—this year’s event provided marketers with compelling insights into shifting consumer behaviors.
One standout trend? Sales distribution across the five days has become more balanced.
While Black Friday online sales reached record highs, foot traffic slowed, reinforcing what many marketers have anticipated: consumers are starting their shopping earlier within these major sales events.
Using data from Envision Horizons' myHorizons analytics suite, we observed a significant shift in Thanksgiving Day sales. In 2023, Thanksgiving Day sales accounted for just over 10% of sales distribution. This year, that figure rose to nearly 14%, aligning with anecdotal evidence of earlier shopping activity.
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